Casey Quinn – My story about surviving cancer

It’s been another crazy week… this one in preparation of starting chemotherapy tomorrow. Since I need someone closer than Houston to be overseeing me while on chemo, it took a lot of calling, a doctor appointment, prescription transferring, etc., to get me ready for to start. When I got back to work last Monday I had to start making calls down to Houston to ensure that my final surgery, MRI and blood reports were sent to Dr. Trusheim in Minneapolis in time for my appointment with him on Thursday. I also had to get the chemo drug overnighted to me so it was available for the start. In the end it all worked out, and the treatment starts tomorrow afternoon. Here’s the treatment cycle:

Tomorrow will be my first week on Temodar, the chemotherapy drug. Each day (Monday – Friday) I’ll be taking the drug at bedtime. To avoid the nausea side-effect, I’ll first take Zofran about 6 hours before I plan to take the chemo drug and then once again right before I take it. In prepping with that, and taking the actual drug at bedtime we hope it will help avoid the worst of the side effects. I also have to make sure I’m taking the medication on an empty stomach (yet I’m supposed to try and gain weight??). I’ll do this for the first five days of every cycle.

Next Monday I’ll be going in for week 2 of 4, which is for the Avastin infusion. I’ll also start my weekly check on my blood counts.

Week 3 of 4 doesn’t have much going on other than the weekly blood check, however it is supposed to be the week where my blood counts are at their lowest.

And finally, week 4 of 4 I’ll have my other Avastin infusion. This completes the 28-day cycle, and at this time we plan on me being on this plan for a year unless something changes and warrants new drugs or a new cycle.

In my meeting with Dr. Trusheim on Thursday I got to spend some time with the team discussing the details of the drugs, their side effects, and what to expect as I move through all of this. If the Zofran can do its job and I’m able to avoid nausea, it may be a little easier to tolerate than what I remember from when I was on chemo in ’95.

Unfortunately, due to my Li Fraumeni syndrome, the chemo puts me at higher risk of developing tumors elsewhere in my body so I’ll be having body scans (most likely CT) moving forward to make sure we’re keeping the rest of me in check. That cycle is still TBD.

I was also able to get the staples removed from my surgery/biopsy that I had in Houston. Ahhhhhh.

After the stressful week, I got to see Ray LaMontagne with my friend April on Friday. It was a great time and a nice escape from all the cancer stuff. Thanks April!

And on Saturday I decided to go down to Mankato to see Mom & Dad. Food is going to start tasting funky soon, so I figured it was the last chance for Runza weekend. Mmmmmmmm.

I’ll keep you posted on how things go this week.

Casey

Tags: appointments, blood work, chemotherapy, drugs, li fraumeni

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