New chemotherapy delayed

Today we attended St John’s Oncology Centre first for a consultation with the Oncologist and then the new regime of Chemotherapy.

Not good news; Joan’s white blood cell count is down and the first dose of Xeloda has to be delayed for another week. I hope that Mr Bone Marrow gets back on track. The Oncologist rescheduled Joan to return in another week to hopefully get a triple dose of Avastin and start the Xeloda tablets. Today she had a single dose of Avastin after more on the spot urine tests looking for blood and excess protein…fortunately that test was OK.

The Avastin inhibits the growth of tumour blood vessels. Blood vessels grow uncontrollably in cancer and Avastin can stop tumours creating new blood vessels.

All other tests were fine, except that the blood tumour marker (CEA) went up slightly from 700 to 768. Not a biggy really as it has come down from the initial 9,300 to 700 and a little increase 68 isn’t too much of a worry. Better next round!

Joan was due to have a gathering of fabric artists next Wednesday and I was asked to get a pile of computers out of the sitting room by then….no need to worry about that now as she has had to cancel the gathering because of the rescheduled chemo on that day.

If one consults Dr Google there are a number of remedies for tired bone marrow, but the Oncologist tells us that there isn’t really much that can help. He suggests plenty of fruit and vegetables and less meat. Did he read that on Google?