Full Fox

Cathy received cycle #11 of her chemo treatment yesterday.

For all you medical folk, people who have experience with chemo, or the just plain curious... Cathy is receiving three drugs that make up what is called the "Full Fox" chemotherapy treatment. This is the standard treatment for a GI tract cancer, which is where they believe the cancer began.  Technically, Cathy has "adeno carcinoma of unknown primary source" but they suspect a tiny polyp in her colon as the culprit, so informally they'll say it's probably colon cancer but that is just their best guess as her cancer did not present itself as colon cancer generally would. The three drugs she is on are Leucovorin, Fluorourcil (also known as 5FU which has to be everyone's favorite name for a chemo drug) and the heavy weight Oxaliplatin.

We don't think Cathy is experiencing any major side effects from the Leucovorin.  The 5FU has turned Cathy's hands a nice shade of brown, just in time for Autumn. They look as though she just raided the chocolate drawer and the evidence is all over her hands. Her skin color will return to normal when she is off of the 5FU. The Oxaliplatin is, as I said earlier, a heavy weight, the drug that is expected to stop the cancer growth immediately, a first responder to get things under control if you will.  In Cathy, it has caused a strange sensation in her hands and fingers. It is a sort of a numbness, not painful, just weird.

Generally people, if they can handle Oxaliplatin at all, can only handle 6-8 cycles of it. Cathy just received her 11th cycle of it and as a reward she gets a little extra supervision by the nurses. During cycle #10, two weeks ago, the nurse hooked up the oxaliplatin and asked Cathy to not recline too far in her comfy chair because they wanted to be able to observe her from the nurses' station. This was the first time she had been given this directive.  The nurse also said to not keep any secrets, if Cathy felt at all "weird" or had any unusual symptoms to let her know.

Kyle writes: if I were Cathy, I would've freaked out and assumed every unusual feeling or twinge of a muscle was some sort of bad reaction to the medicine which would then require a team of nurses and doctors and some sort of beeping machine to get my body under control. How did Cathy react?  She slept.  Very peacefully.  The nurse would come over, ask in a whisper if Cathy was doing alright, I would nod yes, the nurse would smile and walk away. Yesterday went smoothly as well as Cathy received her 11th cycle and could recline as far as she wanted.

Cathy's doctor says she has seen some patients receive as much as 12 - 15 cycles of Oxaliplatin but that is pretty rare.  After cycle #12 they will most likely take Cathy off of the Oxaliplatin because it may begin to do more harm than good. Some of that decision will be based on Cathy's next scan which is scheduled for next Monday, the 24th. That will mean Cathy will have received 6 cycles of the "Full Fox" chemo treatment since her last scan, which at the time indicated stabilization and even some progress and was completed after her fourth cycle. We are very much looking forward to this new scan.