As I mentioned in my last post, the side effects of the Cometriq were getting pretty bad. My doctor had me stop for a few days and then resumed the Cometriq but at a lower dose. The hope was that the medication would still be effective (keeping me alive) but the side-effects less severe. Well, we were half right.
We had some labs taken yesterday, and then we had a checkup with the cancer crack team, today. All of my tumor markers still look good and show a bit of improvement. However, the combination of symptoms and side-effects are still horrendous.
Hey, wanna hear me complain some more?
Non-stop nausea, chronic pain, extreme fatigue, skin irritation, skin so itchy that I wake up almost every day with a new bleeding scratch mark on my face, head or body. Soaking wet night sweats, painful burning feet make it uncomfortable to walk and the beginnings of some burning hands and mouth/tongue pain/stuff, too. Jealous?
Next Steps
In April I’m going to get new scans. On April 13th they are going to present my case to the tumor board again and make sure we are on the right track. Our next appointment will be on April 14th. Based on the results of the scans and the opinions of the tumor board, we’re going to see if we are still on the right track. If the side effects aren’t worth the results then we may consider an even lower dose of Cometriq or maybe switch to a different medication. There is a chance another med will have other side-effects that are more tolerable. And if it doesn’t work, we can always go back to the Cometriq.
Actual paperwork
We thought we finally finished the Social Security Disability application. We submitted weeks of work online. Josephine even went and sat in a waiting room for hours at the SS office to hand-deliver additional paperwork. That’s love, folks. 🙂 But, they just mailed us more paperwork that needs to be filled out by hand and mailed or faxed back. Because we all have fax machines. I love relying on the government for my well-being. I feel so warm and fuzzy and free.
Despite all of this, my spirits are still pretty good. I’m just too tired to post as often, and too tired to do much of anything.
Oh, BTW. This is happening!! Go here for more info. I plan to share more info about this another time. 🙂
