2nd line Cycle 10, Plastic, SOPD

Due to logistic issue, Cycle 10 was postponed by a week. Days before that, the numbness was still there.

The good news was that dad, finally, could sleep much better at night, instead of waking up every 2 hours. I half-suspected that my suggestion helped: I  asked him to shift the morning intake of Oxycontin from 4.30am to the time he would want to be awake to have breakfast i.e. 6.30am. This lessened his anxiety ("Oh, is it time yet? It's only 3.30am? I'll just rest at the dining table until 4.30am) and stress.

The bad news was that he had then needed to take Oxynorm more often i.e. from 1-2 tab to 4-5 tabs a day because of worsening pain in his leg that sometimes was sharp.

Couple days before start of the cycle, we had the first consultation with the plastic surgeon. In the end, they declined to operate. Their opinion was as follows:

" Lesion is likely metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma and excision will need mesh/flap to repair.

As patient is on chemotherapy/post-chemo later, there will be high risk of infection, poor wound healing and breakdown. "

The lumps were not causing him discomfort or hindering his daily activities and so why go for surgery that would then bring in other potential risks? 

The next day, SOPD agreed with the plastic surgeon and wrote an exact copy of their letter to be given to orthopaedic.

On Day 1 of Cycle 10, the oncologist implied that the numbness was due to chemo. If it was so bad that it affected dad's daily activities e.g. hard to button his shirt, then he would recommend stopping the treatment. Since it hadn't come to that point, my dad wanted to go on to finish the remaining 3 cycles.

Tumour marker CA 19.9 dropped imperceptibly to 241 (after Cycle 9) from 244 (after Cycle 6) 😞 Even so, this chemo regimen has been great for him as it rid him of the debilitating back pain, stomach bloatedness and regular vomitting.

Towards Day 14, there was no more swelling, numbness was less intense and Oxynorm was needed fewer times (3-4 times day).