no chemo again

I went in for chemo today and found out that my platelets were too low. My hemoglobin is down to 7.1 even with the Arenesp shot. I am so tired. They finally agreed to give me some red cells. I have to go over to Regions for those. They cannot get me in until Wednesday. That's terrible.

I am still having diarrhea and can't figure out the cause. I have Immodium for breakfast and then don't eat or drink anything until I get home. The docs don't think it's GVHD.

More chemo

I started my second cycle of Gemzar today. My first cycle was not too successful. I only had two of the three doses because my blood counts were knocked down so low. Today they did give me an Aranesp shot to try to keep my red count up. I had a scan at the end of Feb and it show the mets are still growing (by millimeters). This scan was required by the study. I will be scanned in early April to see if the Gemzar is doing anything.

I asked the doc what drug he thought we should try next if Gemzar doesn't work. He did not have a definite answer - maybe Abraxane. I'm not sure what I think would be best either. I think I have had like 11 different drugs/combos and none have worked. He did mention the option of stopping treatment - I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet.

CMV is negative!

I just got the news that my CMV is negative! I can stop taking the Ganciclovir. The Ganciclovir is is hard on the blood counts so in combination with the Gemzar is was not good. I hoping that now that I'm almost off the Cyclosporine these CMV problems will stop.

I have actually been feeling great this week. I worked more than 40 hours which helped a bit with the time I had to take off last week. I think tapering off the Cyclosporine is really helping and when my CMV level goes up I feel crappy also.

Home again!

I was discharged today. They are giving 5 more days of oral antibiotics although the tests did not show anything and I do not have pneumonia. I was released just in time to rush over for mt CT scan at the speciality center. It took longer than usual, so I did not make it into work today. I shouldn't have a problem making it there tomorrow.

I had some real crappy care in the hospital. They had stopped the Budesonide and claimed an increased dose of the hydro cortisone was the reason. After I had been in the hospital for a couple days the pharmacist came to visit and said the only reason the Budesonide was stopped is that they did not have that drug available at the hospital (what!!) so he had me take my own for the rest of the time that I was there.

Still in the hospital

I'm feeling better today. Nothing has turned up on the tests/cultures. I was finally able to give a stool sample this morning, so they will run that today. I haven't seen my labs - they say they are "ok" regarding the liver tests. The Internal medicine doc thought he saw some pneumonia on my CT, but the ID doc said no that it was some fluid that I have on the left side from the mets. I guess we will see what the radiologist says.

Back in the hospital

I was admitted to Regions yesterday with a 103 fever. They are running tests, but haven't found anything yet. The fever went away with tylenol. I am on three different antibiotics.