April 18 - Oncologist

Apr 18

Hello everyone, here’s a brief overview of Colleen’s appointment with the oncologist. On Thursday she met with (video call) her oncologist Dr. Hu.

She will be on a regimen called CAPOX
The doctor is having her wait a couple more weeks to heal more and to keep improving her strength.
It’s a combination of IV and oral chemotherapy
Next Monday she gets her height and weight officially recorded for the oral chemo, and in about a week (of the 27th) she’ll have a port installed and her IV chemo will begin at the start of May.
Luckily because of her age and the stage of the cancer she will only be on chemo for 3 months as opposed to 6.
The rough cadence will be IV 3 weeks on, 1 week off, and I believe the oral will be two weeks on, 1 week off.

I’m not going to lie, after that call it was pretty anxiety inducing for Colleen. It basically triggers her CPV, which then triggers more anxiety and then triggers more CPV’s. Definitely not fun for her or us, since we can only kind of stand around and offer support. It sort of compounds on top of all the COVIDemic stuff…she’s taking to not watching the news or certain shows because it does ratchet up the anxiety.
We did go for a drive, and we did get to talk to April for a bit and that really helped. After that she (we) realized she will be needing some help with anxiety stuff, so we’re researching those possibilities. Plus, she will be needing something to distract her during this: craft? hobby? online class? Something.

Better update:

Her strength and energy continues to improve. She’s going outside, and we’re planning on driving around and car visiting with folks. Her abdomen is still sore but at least she’s walking around upright as opposed to bent over. On a call with DRG this week, DRG told her to take it easier. She did some of that with some of John Hughe’s movie selections. “We’re,” gearing up to start doing yard stuff and I did find a birds nest out in the front yard. It will be fun to keep an eye on the eggs and chicks.

Last night we went and car visited over at McMahonistan and talked with those crazy cats. That was nice and offered a glimpse at normalcy. Maybe I should get a boombox and we can listen to music and drink, or I can watch Keith and Sara drink if I’m driving… well, I can have Fionn drive then I can imbibe.