On the Sutent roller-coaster again.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

I started with Sutent yesterday.  I can’t say that I feel any different.  Some of the Sutent symptoms continued right thru the hiatus, the pause that refreshes between a month’s worth toxic medicine.  There is a slow motion, delayed reaction that I cannot predict.  Just take a day at a time.

Even with two weeks off Sutent, my fingers felt like they were about to blister.  So it goes.

I am increasing the percentage of raw plants in my diet.  Let’s see how that goes.

That’s about all for the medical news.  

Psychologically, I feel quite different than during rounds one and two.  There is more determination tinged with bitterness.   Bitterness was the one taste that remained when my taste buds were at their most atrophied.  I love the bitterness of perfectly flat, non-sour espresso.  The psychological bitterness is another thing and I strive to accept it only to vitiate it.  The most powerful empires absorb, co-opt, we used to say, and move on.

So much for the soma and the psyche.  The rest must rest elsewhere.  I can't help being hierarchical. 

Aloha

Thallervale

7/18/2013 12:52 PM

Round Three

Round  Three with Sutent                                                        Friday, July 12, 2013

Ok I can breathe better now.  Six hours of activity is enough to make me have to stop and rest.  Hence the terseness of the last post.

The new oncologist says there is no obvious growth of the tumors, that the cancer is held at bay, and that my blood work shows I’m stable.  He said there was no better alternative to continuing with Sutent. 

My bet that there would be no dealing with my symptoms proved true.  I’ll have to take them elsewhere.  In other words, I still have no symptoms of kidney cancer.  Strange, isn't it.  My symptoms are classified under less than optimal living habits plus all the side effects of the drugs.   

I asked if there were any new alternatives.  He said there were 8 drugs available.  I asked “are they for papillary RCC?” and he said, no, none are particularly designed for the papillary type.  The tests are all done on the broader category RCC, or should I say, RCCs?  So it is still a crap shoot.

There is no denying that I was hoping for a better alternative.   So this time I’m going to make one: I’m going to try my own home-brew of complementary medicines and exercises.  I’ll see what naturopaths, chiros, et c., I can get thru my Group Health.  I’ll beef up the percentage of raw plant food.  And so on.

This tendency has a long history with me, all the way back to the diet of “water and pulses” from my childhood stories.  I’m pretty sure it is in the Daniel stories.

A friend loaned my Andrew Weil’s Integrative Oncology early in this cancerous phase of life and from it I learned that he was suggesting that healthy living options were the best options.  And at the time I was only looking for someone who had options for “papillary renal cell carcinoma” and he didn't, so I didn't follow his advice.  But in a sense, my “complementary option” is the same thing.  Will it help?  Will it matter?  Time will tell.

Thanks for listening.

Aloha.

Thaller Vale

7/12/2013 7:05 PM

...and the good news is...

...I'm stable and should continue on Sutent.

...and the bad news is...continuing on Sutent.

That's the briefest flash.

More later.

Aloha.

Thaller Vale

CAT SCAN

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The CAT scan went well; it’s becoming routine; the power port helps, being sedated helps, having a loving and intelligent helpmeet helps.

We took the discs immediately and hand delivered them to the oncologist’s office.  The Radiologist report comes later and can be online.

The symptoms I’m watching are two: 

1. a pain around the liver and 
2. an electrical shock that runs from fingers to shoulder on the right.  I’m learning to avoid certain postures and gestures.

My bet is that the CT scan will not show any grounds for explaining these symptoms. 

As for tumor growth, well, I’m willing to wait and see.  

I’m considering treating the symptoms with complementary therapies beyond the AMA.  I’m considering dropping the AMA treatment entirely.  (You should know that my considerations can be very brief flashes, barely time to be present, and yet they count.)  I’m not telling you all I’m considering.  Filtering is the only way to live.  Existence is form and form is limitation. 

That’s all on the medical front for now.  Friday we will know more.

Aloha.

PS: as I don’t know who reads this, and as it seems rather weird, I mean, like who would subscribe to audio-tapes of dinner conversations at a nursing home, oh no, that’s going too far.  Anyway, because of those feelings, I’m considering (flash) making this non-public; all those of you on my mailing lists would have private access.

And, the more I put on the other sites, the more limited this blog will be, to what it always was, a papillary renal cell carcinoma blog.

Cheerio.

Thallervale

7/10/2013 1:32 PM

SUTENT done and gone

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

The sutent is over.  That completes one half year on sutent.  Sutent sure beats Temsirolimus.

The last week of Sutent was rough, compounded by the heat and the pounding of the roofers each day.  But we have survived and have a nice marketable roof now.

Next Monday, they will do the CAT scan again, and then later in the week, the new Oncologist will tell us what’s what.

For more general news, see golbselad.com
.

 Thallervale

7/3/2013 7:14 PM