Met with Dr. Zangmeister (the Zang) today as it was the start of a new chemo cycle. Asked me how things were going, looked at my bloodwork. My white cell count and hemoglobin were a little low, but not terrible for a chemo patient. We also discussed re-visiting a debulking procedure after cycle six. Debulking is where they physically remove all tumor material they can see. Zang spoke previously with the surgeon who performed my initial exploratory procedure and after some thought, the surgeon did not feel it would be medically beneficial to do the procedure. He was reviewing the CT scan from my last cycle when he came to this conclusion. My guess is that the tumor proliferation is still just too invasive. But heh, a surgeon who doesn’t want to cut?!? That’s incredible I think. Zang and I agreed to rescan after cycle 6 and see what we see. I asked him what he’s looking for as far as stopping the chemo and he basically said, I’ll know when I see it. He’s a great doctor to work with – one of the best I’ve come across. As far as remission, well, we’ll just have to wait and see what the scan shows.
As this was a Carboplatin week, I’ve feeling chemo sick. Tired, nauseous, generally unwell. I compare it to the first days after you’ve had a really bad flu. Charlie provides excellent home care and I’ll be well soon.
Stay strong, my darling daughter.