And it's.... a hospital trip for a change

It hasn't gone quite the way we thought it would go this week.

Jan Arne got the dose of Gemzar and Vectibix last Thursday. We thought the side effects of Gemzar weren't supposed to be bad but on Saturday he started to feel very sleepy and weak. He didn't have fever so I figured it was just fatigue which is a common side effect from Gemzar. The problem was that the fatigue was Just So Bad, and he had no appetite either. He slept most of Saturday. And Sunday. And yesterday. Except in the evening he took the older kid to football practise, and today to play a game (they won 2-0, yippee :) I felt bad that Jan Arne had to go but I had something else both evenings and he said he is tired but ok, except today he had a sore throat in the morning.

The problem with having a cancer patient and two young kids in the family is that the kids keep you busy until they go to bed (even with my parents helping), and only then you can really pay attention to the cancer patient. Good luck he paid attention to himself and took his temperature. It was 38.7 C so I took a look at his throat and it looked like it could be infected (no I have not started my medical studies yet but maybe I should). I phoned the cancer ward and they said he should get to the hospital. Unfortunately the doctor had just gone home 15 minutes earlier, otherwise he could have taken a look at Jan Arne. Instead he had to go to the first aid once again and it's not the nicest place as the service can sometimes be quite slow. He went there two hours ago and had just now had his blood test taken, and it's 23:30 (11.30 pm).

Sigh. Well at least he got some kind of a bed to lie in in there but hopefully they will take him to the cancer ward soon so he can get some proper rest (in a hospital bed?? Yea right). But better to be safe than sorry if it is a throat infection as we don't know how his blood values are after Gemzar and if he manages to battle the infection. But now we don't know if he's been tired because of the chemo or because of a flu.

To be continued.

In the woods

I had my first dose of Gemzar today and I am experiencing a slight chemobrain. I had almost forgotten how it feels like since last I had it was with Camptosar back in April. The wife and I celebrated the first dose by having some lunch downtown. When I came home I went straight to bed and slept for two hours. Another reason for feeling tired may be staying up late last night to watch Copenhagen - Rosenborg (football). Copenhagen won and was by far the better team (congratulations Denmark!).

I've recently been going to the woods with a map and a compass. There are these weekly orienteering events open for everyone that I've joined a couple of times (iltarastit in Finnish). I've had a two years break from orienteering and it feels fantastic to fly through the woods again. Well, flying was a bit of an overstatement. I walk part of the time as I'm not that fit anymore. I hope to go for the third time next week.

I also played a round of golf with a friend the other day. I haven't played much the recent years so my swing is pretty rusty. But actually it doesn't really matter anymore. It was great fun anyway!

Something to add

(wife writing this time) An interesting turn of events today. Jan Arne got a phone call from the doctor we met yesterday. She had discussed Jan Arne's case with another senior oncologist specialising on colorectal cancers and he had suggested that in the next treatment they will add a new chemo to his cocktail, Gemzar (gemcitabine) which is most commonly used for pancreatic and lung cancers. Let's hope it will have an impact on the metastases in the lungs! Have a good weekend you all! It'll be another warm one in Finland, the heat wave has lasted almost continuously since the beginning of July.

Good and bad news

The doctor had both bad and good news to share about the CT scan report. To take the good news first, the tumours in the liver had shrunk. The measure of the biggest tumor is now 2,7 x 3,8 cm while it was 3,6 x 6,1 cm in the April CT scan. Quite a big change actually. Also on the positive side was the fact that CEA had gone down to 733,6. It was 829,6 on 2nd of June. The bad news was that there is cancer growth outside of the liver. Many lymph nodes around the liver have grown in size and some small tumours (2-3 mm in diameter) can also be seen on both side of the lungs.

We don't know if the cancer started to grow before or after I started on Vectibix. Since the CEA value decreased since June, it is possible that the growth happened during the (unintended, because of bile duct trouble) chemo break in April/May and that Vectibix has had an effect and reduced the cancer. In any case, the doctor recommended I would continue on Vectibix, then they will check the CEA value again in a month, and take another CT scan in two months.

Funnily enough, I left the doctor's office with a positive feeling. I had expected worse news, but now I choose to belive Vectibix is working. Anyhow, times are uncertain.

First impression

Summer holidays are soon over. Schools start in Tampere tomorrow and our kids start kindergarten next week. We have had a fantastic summer and the warmest ever in Finland. Recently thunderstorms and even tornadoes have hit the country. Makes me wonder about global warming and where all this is going.

The two weeks of cooler weather in Norway was a nice break away from the heat. The trip was also otherwise nice and we were lucky to meet up with family and many friends. The kids speak much better Norwegian now and especially the younger guy improved his language skills a lot, now he speaks pretty consistently only Norwegian with me.

We have a nice beach nearby that we have visited frequently with the kids. The other day there was a huge, in terms of muscles, man standing next to us watching his own kid swim. He was bald and had lots of tattoos. I imagined he probably rides a Harley Davidson and is a member of the local motorcycle club. All of a sudden he spoke to me and I got slightly worried. He thought I spoke Swedish with the kids and he explained he had himself lived in Sweden for years. We spoke for a while and he turned out to be a really nice guy. It was one of those times you realise first impression is not always right.

Yesterday I had a CT scan and I'll get to hear the results on Thursday. We are again living exciting times. The blood values have been good throughout the summer but this time I'm worried about the results of the scan because of the cancer marker that was on the rise in June.