Time for a change

The petscan that I had on Friday has shown some progression in the liver and a couple of  lymph nodes. It is a fairly minor progression with none of the 3 areas being over the size of a quarter, but my oncologist has decided that it is time to move on treatment-wise.  She is fairly aggressive with changing quickly to avoid large amounts of growth or things getting out of control.   I am good with this approach, but it is still hard to have a treatment only last for 7-8 months.     The scan also showed some fluid around the liver and around the spleen that she thinks occurred as a side effect of the previous chemo, Gemzar.  Hopefully, changing treatments will help that resolve as well.

I am being switched to a chemo called Halaven.  This chemo is given 2 weeks on / 1 week off with checking labs on the off week.  It can lower counts, but hopefully will not impact them as much as the previous one did.  If they do, it is possible to lower the dose.   While there are a variety of side effects, the biggest one I've been warned about is fatigue.  Stomach issues are possible but not as common as with some others.  Hair may thin, but is unlikely to come out completely.

 The hardest thing right now is just the unknown.  I'd finally gotten to a good place with the previous treatment where I knew how I'd feel when and how to manage all of it.  Now I have to start that process all over again.   Changing chemos in the midst of all this virus craziness adds an extra bit of anxiety since I have no idea what my counts will do, but I"ll just take it a day at a time & makes quarantine myself even more important.  

I'd appreciate prayers that this new treatment will work as well as possible.  I hope you have a good week!