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I thought today would be a good day to give an update on my Xeloda treatment because today was a pretty good day.  First, let me start by saying that I do NOT have a pulmonary embolism.  Rusty read my last post and informed me that I never actually gave the results of my last scan even though I knew as I was writing it that it came back clean.  Whoops!

Also, remember how in my last post I was feeling great and I was speculating about why that was?  I was thinking it could be either the new pain meds, the steroids, the Xeloda, or the mental relief about starting a new treatment.  The verdict is in:  it was definitely the steroids.  And maybe a bit of the positive mental attitude.  But that could be the steroids, too.

So far, the Xeloda has been pretty uneventful.  I've had a brief encounter with mouth sores, and a very slight tingling in my hands, but the worst side-effect has been fatigue.  I typically take a nap on the days that I'm home, and I typically wish I could take a nap on the days that I'm at work.  However, today I went to work and didn't feel the need to take a nap.  Hooray!

Unfortunately, I haven't noticed a decrease in the level of pain, but I think I've finally gotten used to managing the medication so that I don't feel much of it.  Sometimes I try to power through it or "grin and bear it," but I think that has actually been hurting me more than it seemed.  I've had that awful pain in my left shoulder area that my oncologist said was probably "transference".  [As a side note, I first thought that meant that maybe I was overcompensating or tightening some muscles to reduce the pain in one location, and it was just travelling to the new spot.  Maybe that's really what she meant.  However, my searching on "pain transference" has yielded lots of psychic mumbo-jumbo results that don't really sound like what's going on.  I hope she's not calling me crazy.]  Either way, the pain in my left shoulder is real, and I've found that it seems to get worse and lingers longer if I wait to take something for the pain.

More importantly, I'm just plain happier and more pleasant if I'm not in pain.  This is not only good for me, it's also good for everyone around me :-)  I'm also eating better and sleeping better, and that means I'm less tired.  Win-win!

So far, this new treatment is definitely not kicking my butt like the last one, but I'm really hoping it's kicking the tumor's butt.  Or just kicking the whole damn tumor - no need to restrict it to the butt.  I'm anxious to start seeing and feeling some results with the tumor, but it's easier to be patient when I'm feeling better, even if it is better living through pharmaceuticals.