On Tuesday 12 November after my sixth infusion I reached the half way point of my treatment with Irinotecan and fluorouracil(5FU) and folinic acid. apparently the folonic acid makes 5FU more effective. As this was the halfway point in the treatment I needed to have a CTscan to check the effectiveness of the treatment regime. Two days after my infusion I again started to suffer from diarrhoea which lasted 4 or 5 days and showed no signs of stopping despite the use of loperamide tablets as instructed by the pharmacist, so I phoned the doctor at the treatment clinic on the 18th Nov. and she immediately put me on antibiotics which cleared the diarrhoea very quickly. On the 21 Nov I was back at the clinic to have my PICC line cleaned. The next day I was back in the Hospital again to have a CT Scan at 10.30 in the morning. I was now all set up for the halfway meeting with the doctor on the following Tuesday 26 Nov, what was the outcome going to be was the treatment effective or not, were the side effects tolerable or not?
Monday 25 Nov. went into the Sir William Rous Unit to have my bloods taken ready for the doctor to see on Tuesday.
Wendy and I got to the clinic in good time on Tuesday, however it was very busy and we had to wait nearly 2 hours before we saw the doctor. However it was not my regular clinic doctor and initially the replacement doctor said that my bloods were OK and as I was feeling good then I could continue with my treatment. He had not realised that I had had a CT scan the previous week and we were supposed to be discussing the effectiveness of the treatment so far and whether or not there was a need to change to a different treatment regime. As he did not know the background I told him to look up the CT Scan on the computer after he had done this he said that he needed to phone the normal doctor to find out what the plans were. so back to the waiting room for another 45 minutes. He then called us in and said that as the current drugs were not working effectively and they were causing severe side effects then I was to switch to a new drug called "Cetuximab". I had the choice of coming back in one or two weeks. I chose to come back next week. On our way out the Doctor said that I was very lucky to be able to have this drug. It works differently to other chemotherapy treatments that attack healthy cells as well as the cancer cells. This drug is targeted on the cancer cells and shuts down their reproduction system. This reduces the side effects considerably.
Monday 2 Dec I went in for my bloods to be taken and the following day Wendy and I turned up at 11.15 am ready to see the doctor, luckily it was the usual one who had come back after some sick leave. She agreed that I could go ahead and have the treatment, the unit was full so I had to go into one of the private rooms where I felt a bit isolated I much prefer to be in the same room as the other patients as you can talk about and compare your treatments etc with them.
The initial dose with this drug is 200ml taken over 2 hours, they monitor you over this period as a small minority of patients suffer flu like symptoms and for one hour after the infusion before you can go home. The treatment for me went very well with no adverse reactions. My next treatment is due in 2 weeks, so I am back to the fortnightly pattern
Monday 16 Dec. Had to wait for about one hour before my bloods were taken. My PICC line which is designed to feed the infusion into a large vein near my heart also has the ability to draw back blood, unfortunately my PICC has got blocked up somehow and its not possible to take blood samples using it. Therefor whenever I have to give bloods they put a needle in my right arm to draw the blood off. This time around I had a care assistant who has been trained in taking blood samples, I was a bit reticent but it turned out to be OK.
Tuesday, treatment day. Wendy and I set off at 9.0am and arrived on time for a 10.00 am appointment with the doctor. One hour later we got to see her and she said my blood levels were OK. I had been having trouble with my thigh leg muscles and mentioned this to her and she said it was probably the result of a course of steroids that they had given me which tend to target the larger muscles in the body. Apparently it will recover over a period of time. So onto the treatment clinic for another 30 to 45 minute wait for a nurse to become available to start up the infusion. these are quite short being only for one hour plus a 30 minute saline solution infusion to clear the PICC line. Felt good after this treatment but later on in the afternoon I began to feel very tired so I had a little rest until dinner time. I am quite comfortable with this new treatment regime as so far I have not suffered any side effects and I am begining to feel a lot better and more relaxed and able to get on with things. Lets see how the treatment goes as I am supposed to come out in a rash of spots within the first few weeks of treatment....I will keep you posted!!
