From now onward for the next 6 to 8 weeks, you will see a lot of entries with the “Radiotherapy” heading. This particular entry is entitled Pre-therapy Consult #2 because today was really the 2nd consult and last Friday was the 1st consult.
Last Friday’s consult was to determine if I should have radiotherapy and today’s consult was an assessment to determine if I can proceed with the therapy and take a CT scan for measurement, creating a mold for immobilisation during radiotherapy and planning.
My radiotherapy will start on 20th March and it will go on for every day except weekends and public holidays for 30 sessions. At the same time, I will also have chemotherapy concurrently but whether chemotherapy can proceed will depend on my blood test results. The last chemotherapy could not proceed because initially my platelet count was low and subsequently there was some problem with my liver function and this was due in part to the bile duct been blocked indirectly by the pancreatic tumor. Due to this blockage, I am also beginning to have some jaundice and the “white” in my eyes are turning yellow.
The tumor is also blocking my stomach outlet causing food retention that also causes me to be bloated. Last Saturday’s night, I forced myself to vomit and huge amount of food came out and I can recognise some of the food as from Friday’s night dinner. Today, the doctor was saying that with radiotherapy, if all goes well, I should be able to see improvement to my situation, i.e. less blockages and the jaundice should slowly fade and if the jaundice persist, may have to put in a stent to drain the gall bladder.
For now, I am just waiting for a call from TTSH to let me know when I should go from my blood test to determine if I can also proceed with my chemotherapy. The double-therapy is probably the best option at this point since surgery is out of the question and to hit the tumor hard with more aggressive dosing. As for the side effects, with the double whammy, not sure how “bad” the side effects will be as I will be having higher radiation dose for the radiotherapy but I may be placed on a less aggressive chemotherapy drug.
Over the next couple of weeks, I may just have to “drop off the face of the earth” temporarily but I could be found “online”. Pray for tolerance to the therapies’ side-effects and effectiveness of the therapy.
In God We Trust
Hebrew 11:1
No comments:
Post a Comment