Wednesday, Mike's oncologist informed us that his kidneys are handling the chemo quite well, and they wanted to increase the amount of Oxaliplatin that they're giving him. The "normal" dose for his height and weight would be 200mg. He's been getting 100mg. They changed it to 125mg and already his side effects have increased. He's more tired this round, and also the cold sensitivity has appeared. the doctors have told us that patients have described it as though when drinking anything cooler than room temperature, it feels as though they are drinking a glass of broken glass. So far it's not that bad, but he said that his tongue feels tingly and his lips felt as though the milk was freezing as he drank it. Not cool. But better than cancer, I guess. We just have to wait 2 weeks to do another blood draw to find out if his kidneys are okay with this. They're not clearing the meds out as quickly as they would if they worked normally, so he actually has the crap in his body longer than most people would. Awesome. But his blood counts look good still. He is still slightly anemic but they attribute that to the chemo. It will be good to see that go away when this is all done, since that was our first clue that something was wrong..
So that's the cancer news. All is well as well can be for now. After his last treatment (December 1) they will begin scheduling CT scans and more blood work. Since he can't do CTs with contrast, there may be a few MRIs thrown in there. Yipee. But if everything goes according to plan, after March or so, the most annoying thing we'll have to deal with is doctor visits and shoveling snow.
