I had my pre-chemo bloodwork and oncologist appointment today. The oncologist told me that the bone scans were clean, my heart is in great shape, and the CT scan was mostly fine, except for a spot that showed up near my SI joint. I’m fairly certain that my family doctor had something to say about that when I was a child, so it’s probably nothing new.
After the appointment, I met with the pharmacist. He spent about an hour explaining all of the different medications to me, and how to minimize side effects. The medications I was given for nausea are Emend, Ondansetron, and Olanzapine. I was also given Dexamethasone, which is the same steroid Trump was apparently on when he had, or pretended to have COVID-19.
Lastly, I got a syringe with Lapelga, which would cost about $1600 without insurance. Yikes. I believe that there are options available for people who can’t afford the drug, but people have to jump through some hoops. Fortunately, it was fully covered for me because I’d prefer to keep the $6400 in my own pocket. This medication helps boost white blood cell production, to hopefully prevent a severely weakened immune system. I’m going to give myself this shot instead of going in to a clinic, because what’s the point of taking extra trips for something that is easy to do?
Cycles 5-8 are one week, not two.
After all that, the pharmacist went through the chemo regimen I will be on, and I was surprised to learn that I will be having a dose dense regimen. That means instead of getting chemo every three weeks, it will be every two weeks for the first four cycles (AC), then weekly for the last four (PACL+TRAS). That’s going to make a mess of a few items in my calendar, so that should be “fun”. The upside is that I will likely be finished with the chemo portion of the treatment a lot faster than I originally thought. If all goes well without delays due to low white blood cell counts, I will be doing my last chemo treatment on April 22nd.
Once I’m done, I get another bone scan done on May 3rd, followed by a month of radiation not too long after that. Just looking at all of this treatment ahead of me, I am already seriously looking forward to the summer to get a break!