It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Today (Monday, July 14, 2014) was the start of Cycle 4 for me. Bruce’s EUS revealed involvement of at least two lymph nodes & the tumor extends into his stomach. He has been receiving chemotherapy & radiation. I get chemo every Monday & he gets his every Thursday…that way one of us is usually feeling well enough to do the driving. Bruce gets radiation every day during the week. Their machine was down for two days so he had to make up one of the treatments on Saturday. They had more trouble today so he was there for over 1 hours waiting but finally got his radiation. He is almost done with his radiation & chemo. He is doing a countdown & has 5 radiation & 1 chemo treatment left as long as the radiation treatments don’t get postponed for any reason. He is also receiving Taxol & Carboplatin but different doses.
I just had the first treatment for Cycle 4 today that means 2 more chemos in this cycle(2 more weeks) then 2 more cycles (6 more weeks). So I am now in the second half of my treatment. If Bruce’s radiation continues as scheduled he will be done next week…then he is to have 7 weeks rest/healing. He also is to have a PET scan when done. He will be referred to a surgeon for removal of the diseased area of his esophagus with part of his stomach to become part of his esophagus. His surgery will hopefully take place the week I have my last chemotherapy (or sooner). We thought the surgery would have to be done in Tampa but it may actually be able to be done locally. We’ll find out when we see Dr. Percent in 2 weeks.
If all goes as planned I may be able to go back to work in October. I could work now if it was possible but kind of hard to have chemo on Monday, fly to Iowa, and work 5 nights (12 hour shifts) then fly home for more chemo. I also seem to be getting weaker with each chemo…doesn’t help that my blood counts are low. There are days where I can barely get the barn chores done as I get very short of breath with any exertion. I don’t think I will even consider working until Bruce’s surgery is done. I guess that’s why everyone needs to have emergency savings accounts and I’m glad we have ours…just didn’t want to end up spending it this way.
