History PT 4

Wednesday 19/12/2012

I met with A/Prof Niall Tebbutt who is now my oncologist. The shear speed of all this is amazing. I barely have time to see a face let alone remember one. I suspect however I will be remembering Niall's as we will be seeing each other for quite  while. 

Diagnosis - I have what they are treating as stage 4 Gastric cancer. The tumor is just below the point where the esophagus joins the stomach. It can't be treated by surgery as it is too advanced and can only be treated by chemo. It has spread to a number of lymph nodes around the stomach and also to nodes behind the stomach close to the aorta. The results of Friday's biopsies are not back yet so can't tell if anything else. 

I will be getting ECX chemo which is a 3 week cycle of chemo for about 6 months (24 weeks). 2 are delivered by direct injection administered every 3 weeks at the hospital and 1 by tablet taken every day. To be eligible for the study I have to be MET positive and HER2 negative.  From the laparoscopy biopsies they will test them for the MET and HER2. Hopefully all this starts sometime in January. 

        Lastly he is expecting the results for the biopsies sometime before new year. He will                                    ring me before end of year to let me know. After that he is on leave until end of Jan but will have things organised to start as soon as possible after the results come in. 

Due to Christmas and the rush of all this, plans are a little hard to make.  So we will be having a very quiet Christmas with nothing planned. 

Thursday 20/12/2012

They've taken me off the Nexium (last Saturday) and put me on Brufen which I hadn't taken until today and my ulcer is now really bad. I did ask the nurse on Saturday if I should go on Brufen given I have ulcers caused by NSAID and she said it was OK. Well she is wrong. 

Friday 21/12/2012

Rang Tebbutt and asked about alternate pain relief for the ulcer. He has provided me a script for OxyNorm which apparently is a very powerful pain killer. It has some side affects though according to the Doctor and the pharmacist. It causes drowsiness and can cause constipation among other things. I discussed with  the pharmacist what I was taking it for and he suggested something else which is not a prescription drug but is a strong one for ulcers (Somac). 

So I have the OxyNorm but haven't taken it, I have however taken a Somac.

Saturday 22/12/2012

The Somac worked well, I slept well and the pain is almost gone. I still have some Nexium so I will finish them but at half the dosage, ie one a day until they run out. I have a repeat script for them also so will keep with them until finished. Then take the Somac.