2nd line Cycle 4 & 5
Dad vomited air, as usual, during first few days of Cycle 4 but kudos to him for trying to eat as much as he could. Despite that, he still lost nearly a kg when starting Cycle 5 :(
There was appointment with PCU few days before Cycle 5. By then, even his back pain was gone. The only problem was this: when he got up in the middle of the night to go to toilet, he would feel numbness in his left leg and some pain. So PCU increased Gabapentin to 3 times a day.
Cycle 5 was much kinder to him: there was no vomiting of air or food and by Day 2 onward, there was no more pain in his leg when he got up in middle of night. Later he had constipation and slept only a few hours each night for two nights but fortunately, he could sleep normally on Day 5 and moreover, his leg was good enough for him to walk without the using the walking stick. By Day 6, his constipation was gone, with the help of some medicine of course.
There was nothing much the oncologist could comment from the CT scan (with contrast) report because there was no previous CT scan to compare it to (we did PET/CT scans). That puzzled me from the start: why did they order one? The only thing the doctor could confirm was that there was no progression of cancer in dad's right lower abdomen.
However, the good news is that compared to just before start of this chemo regime, dad's condition is much better now: no more back pain, no more belching, and to him, the lumps on his right waist are smaller. So the oncologist recommended monitoring via tumour marker. If it stabilises or increases despite this improvement, then she would order another CT scan.
There was appointment with PCU few days before Cycle 5. By then, even his back pain was gone. The only problem was this: when he got up in the middle of the night to go to toilet, he would feel numbness in his left leg and some pain. So PCU increased Gabapentin to 3 times a day.
Cycle 5 was much kinder to him: there was no vomiting of air or food and by Day 2 onward, there was no more pain in his leg when he got up in middle of night. Later he had constipation and slept only a few hours each night for two nights but fortunately, he could sleep normally on Day 5 and moreover, his leg was good enough for him to walk without the using the walking stick. By Day 6, his constipation was gone, with the help of some medicine of course.
There was nothing much the oncologist could comment from the CT scan (with contrast) report because there was no previous CT scan to compare it to (we did PET/CT scans). That puzzled me from the start: why did they order one? The only thing the doctor could confirm was that there was no progression of cancer in dad's right lower abdomen.
However, the good news is that compared to just before start of this chemo regime, dad's condition is much better now: no more back pain, no more belching, and to him, the lumps on his right waist are smaller. So the oncologist recommended monitoring via tumour marker. If it stabilises or increases despite this improvement, then she would order another CT scan.
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