9-19-06

Well today was infusion day number 2. Aside from being tired and having a touch of nausea the first infusion went really well. I still felt pretty good during the morning before the infusion and was curious as to how the Cisplatin would affect me. A key part of preventing permanent kidney damage when receiving Cisplatin was to make sure that I was hydrated so I tried to drink as much as I could before and after the infusion. They also insure that you are hydrated by infusing a couple liters of saline solution into you before giving you the actual chemo. The infusion itself went pretty well. Pretty typical and I actually did not feel as tired afterwards as usual.

I got to meet a couple of fellow pancreatic cancer patients while I was getting infused and chatted with them. One was very enjoyable the other not so much. The guy I spoke to just did not seem to understand where he was or who he was talking to. Maybe he did not see the "Oncologist" title below Dr. Isacoff's name. I mean he was very nice and pretty chatty but at one point when he was describing his case he said "man I was lucky to get it in the head of my pancreas. If you get it in the body (of the pancreas), your done for." My jaw dropped and I just responded something to the effect of "Uhh, not necessarily. I don't consider myself done for. " The other patient's daughter chimed in and also defended our right to survival. What he meant was that typically when the cancer is in the head it causes some symptoms and is usually caught early enough to be surgically resected. When the cancer is in the body, often it grows unnoticed and symptom free, gets to a much later stage and is very hard to treat. This guy also made it sound like he was on easy street. All he has to do is go through 3 months of chemo, then he is scheduled for a whipple, and then he should be good to go. News flash buddy, a lot can happen in 3 months, treatment can go well or poorly, and frankly, from what I have read on the whipple, the procedure looks like some sort of deranged reorganization of your digestive track performed by a plumber on crack. I wish the guy the best of luck and truly hope he beats it but I also hope he gains a little better awareness of the possible circumstances of the people that are right there with him. He was lucky Eva was not in the room, otherwise the cancer may have been the easy adversary.

The other patient was truly inspiring. I mostly spoke to her daughter, as she slept though most of her infusion but her story was pretty amazing. She had been a candidate for a whipple though when they opened her up, they saw a few metastases in the abdominal walls and could really do nothing for her. Imagine going into a major surgery and thinking that you would be coming out cancer free only to hear as you are recovering that there were other sites of cancer and they could do nothing for you at that point. From there she began systemic treatment (chemo) and has been doing really well. She has been on chemo for 1 year and 8 months and has been able to lead a fairly normal life. It seems that the cancer has pretty much been controlled and her markers have gone way down but it seems uncertain what the next step will be. What was particularly helpful to me was going over some of the wierder side effects and just knowing that others have experienced just what I am going through. Eva describes my eating habits like a 4 year old, their description was like a pregnant woman. She also told me about some of the things that may happen with Cisplatin. One interesting one is the possibility that my nerve endings may sort of reverse so that hot feels cold and visa-versa. I can't wait for that one.

Anyways, here is a pic of me and Sony as I am getting infused. That dog is pretty adorable. Also, check out the checks. I think the prednisone is adding a little character to the face. Final stat, my weight in the morning was 159.8, after super hydrating at night it was 168.4. That's a lot of fluids.