Chemotherapy

Greetings from a rainy, Chicago day.  I have been going out walking at least one mile every morning, since it clears my head, wakes me up, and makes me feel energized.  But because walking is not ideal on the stormy morning, I'm posting an update to my story.

Summer had been with me about 3 months at that point, and I was the happiest that I've ever been.  This is the one, I told myself, and I started thinking about getting married.  Unfortunately, my brain tumor decided it wanted to start growing again.

I had been having MRIs every 3 months.  Dr. Melian, the oncologist who was reading my MRI along with the radiologist, had been going back to 6 month scans.  Both did not realize they needed to go back further that to see the subtle change.  Dr. Melian realized this, and decided to go back to a year's worth and before, and spotted the change.

This caught me by surprise.  I had been stable for about 3 years.  Not now!  I was doing so good, I had a girlfriend, and life began turning around for me, and my brain started wreaking havoc again.  My doctor was a radiation oncologist, so after the tumor board met, and recommended RT (radiotherapy).  From all the stuff I was reading, is it generally not wise to do brain surgery again, knowing that the surgeon got as much of it that he could, leaving me with two choices: radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

Luckily, I had a new tool in my arsenal.  Summer asked people she worked with, and someone gave her a name Dr. Englehart from Chicago University (I think?).  He was the neurosurgeon, and as I said, surgery wasn't an option, so he referred to to Dr. Paleologos and Evanston Hospital, who is a oligodendroglioma specialist, and the first neuro-oncologist I ever had.  We called for an appointment, and everybody was very nice to me there.  A woman called a "nurse navigator" helped me out, getting my medical records from the very beginning at Morris Hospital all the way to current day.

Dr. Nina Paleologos put me though a full exam.  She explained the dangers of radiotherapy, and we would to prevent from getting it for as long as possible.  We decided was best to use Temodar chemotherapy.  It came in pill form, and I was to take a set amount of dose for 5 days a month, over a span of 24 months.  So we decided that felt like the right path to go.

We did a lot of living at that time.  I was still working, we got married, we had a baby, we went to California and Hawaii, attending family functions.  I was living though the chemo.

At first, it was easy to tolerate.  Within 6 months, it had reduced the size of the tumor, and the doctor was happy with the results.  After that, it stopped reducing the size, and held it steady for the rest of the time I was on it.  About a year into it, I was tolerating it less and less.  It had a funny taste to it, my food tasted weird for about a week, the taste made me nauseous, and eventually led to me throwing up the pills.  I made though the 2 years worth of cycles, then I was done.

I truly can say it was a relief, but the relief didn't last past a year.

The next step is radiation, or radiotherapy, and I tell you guys about that next time.