vacation

I apologize if I’ve caused some consternation with my lack of recent postings, but I’ve got to be in a writing mood to write, if you know what I mean. I am back in LA, beginning round 5 tomorrow at Norris after having spent three weeks at home in Palo Alto, getting treatment at Stanford.

It is difficult to be back after such a wonderful vacation. I doubt I have ever had such a long period so filled with old friends, laughter, and amazing food. My mother cooked up a storm. People came to visit from across the country (the fabulous Elena Byhoff being one of them, who specifically asked to be included in that way so that searching Google for “fabulous” and “Elena” would point to her – not that the rest of you aren’t special, you’re just less demanding). We threw a twelve-hour blowout house party on the 30th, complete with fire dancers, drummers, lots of great wine, and a healing circle. Walks in the woods, a trip to the beach. Playtime in San Francisco. Nostalgia in Berkeley. And finishing it all off, a three-day slow drive down the state with my family, staying in Paso Robles and Ojai.

Even the week of treatment that I did up north was relatively easy. Being able to go home at night made all the difference. Also, the side effects of the ACE regimen were not nearly as severe as with the POMB regimen. In fact, one of the side effects is apparently amnesia, because I can’t really remember what happened. I think I was mostly just bloated and blotto. Couldn’t really do… much… at… all… and thinking… was: slow. I also got Neupogen shots once a day for four days to boost my trashed immune system (recombinant G-CSF, for those who care and know what that is), which caused some nasty bone pain in my back and pelvis for a couple of days. This was expected, because the marrow in those big “flat” bones is where most of the immune cells are produced. I had a lot of good news: I am unexpectedly not severely immunosuppressed, which is a very good thing considering the gigantic holiday parties I went to. The even better news is that my tumor markers are within striking distance of normal! The reference ranges are around 10 (don’t worry about the units), and the markers had been in the thousands and tens of thousands. They were both around 35 last week, a huge drop! Does anyone else think it is strange that I had to request that my blood work be done? Don’t my doctors care to follow these things closely? OK, maybe it wouldn’t affect the treatment plan, and it costs money, but isn’t my peace of mind worth it? Sheesh.