Friday, January 28, 2011

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse

I show up at Washington Dulles Airport for my Johannesburg flight only to be told that they had cancelled it and I was rescheduled for the next night. I tried to explain how important I was and what a tight schedule I was operating on but they didn’t buy it.
 
So I got my trusty travel guy (MH) to help me out and he came through. I was re routed by him to go through Frankfurt and then on to Johannesburg. I would lose a day of the trip but at least I would be getting out of Dodge (snowy Washington).
 
So here I sit in the lounge in Frankfurt (very comfortable) but slightly miffed at what has transpired. What made this whole thing worse was that I subsequently learned that my SAA flight did indeed leave for Johannesburg a couple of hours late ! How the hell did this happen ? Who knows, but you can bet that they have not heard the end of it from me.  
 
Stay tuned.
 
Carpe Diem.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Off again

Tomorrow I leave for Southern Africa again. I am really excited about this trip as I'm sure my two guests must be. I will try and keep up with the blog and pictures. I'm particularly looking forward to a bit of heat and sunshine as we are currently getting dumped on here in Baltimore. Over 10 inches of snow !!!

Carpe Diem.

24 hour pee test results

I just got an email from Dr. Schraeder. Here is what he had to say:

"24 hour urine protein was elevated at 270 mg in 24 hours.  While that is elevated (normal 50-80 mg in 24 hours) and likely due to Avastin, it was way below the point that I would need to hold Avastin in the future.  (if > 2,000 mg in 24 hours, it is recommended to hold Avastin).  I will resume Avastin with your next dose of Alimta"

Barring some other problem, I'm glad to hear that we will resume the Avastin at my next treatment on February 14th.

Carpe Diem.
 

Monday, January 24, 2011

Chemo 7 (Round 7)

Finally, a twist. Month after month and the "everything is normal" cycle is broken. Nothing too sinister but allow me to explain.

My weight was stable, my blood pressure was good and the blood work was fine. But the urine test was not. It showed protein in my urine. One of the effects of being on Avastin is they have to keep a close eye on your blood pressure and signs of protein in your urine. With both of these tests elevated you can get kidney damage from the Avastin. Even though my blood pressure was fine the protein was too elevated to give me the Avastin so I was only given the Alimta. Still with me ?

I now have to do a 24 hour pee collection and they will check the protein figure again. This, apparently, is much more accurate. If everything calms down I will be given the Avastin at my next treatment on the 14th of February.

What's interesting is I have been on Avastin for quite a long time and until recently the tests were always negative. What the hell happened.

Carpe Diem.