The blood sugar drops have been getting harder to control, the itch factor has cranked up a notch or five, and the pain levels had me resorting to more and more Jungle Juice (sub-lingual Liquid Morphine) and the depression was devastating so I stopped the Tykerb because these are all its side effects. Except the depression, but I’ll bet it’s a contributor to the overall depression reason.
Dr. Cole at the VA emergency clinic said I looked a little jaundice and so did Dr. Kelley a few days later, and yet another new Oncologist we saw at Kaiser, one Dr. Bruce Clark, and our first impression of him was that he was attentive and knew my history thus far, and he too mentioned the yellowed skin. Then this morning coming out of the shower and looking in the mirror it had progressed to my eyes...YIKES! Yet one more symptom of Tykerb, which I had stopped four days earlier. Hopefully they’ll all wane slowly away.
The Burzynski clinic did manage to get the rest of my tumor markers from Kaiser and now they’re talking about Tarceva, more chemo. And I can stop looking for an infusion clinic for the Herceptin because Tarceva is a pill. The price range being around $1,800 to $3,095 per 30 pills a month. Unless they want me on more than one a day. I thought I was going to Texas to get away from chemotherapy.
The depression seems to be lifting a little tonight; it’s 7pm and I’m not feeling like a basket case. My wife and I have a lot of thinking and talking to do this week about our next steps and what the side effects of Tarceva are gonna be, and what kind of quality of life symptoms I can expect. And what kind of questions we need Dr. Kubove to answer for us. Thank the heavens I have such an amazingly intelligent wife and partner.
OK, fading fast...next week.
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