When I met with Dr Anker to discuss the option of having radiation therapy on one of the tumors, I heard the cheeleading cheer come in my head "Be Aggressive...Be Be..Aggresive. :) I have decided to fight this crap head on and attack it while I am still healthy.
I started the "IPI" (ipilimumab) treatment today. It took 2 nurses, and a PICC line team 8 times to finally get the IV started. I WAS a pin cushion today.
Once the IV was in the infusion was given to me for 90 minutes, and then they observed me for an hour to make sure that I would not have any side effects.
IPI is supposed to help shrink the cancer tumors and with the combination of radiation therapy it can even show NED (no evidence of disease) or remission, It is not chemotherapy, but more of a immunotherapy drug, to try to get my immune system to fight the cancer.
The schedule is radiation 5 times over a 2 1/2 week period. And 1 IPI treatment 1 a week every three weeks over a 12 week period (so four doses).
Dr Grossman told me that based on the side effects that I had with IL2....this will be a kitten.
I spoke to a new therapist "Gabby" today and she was AWESOME. I wish she could come talk to my Relief Society Sisters. She talked all about how feelings come from thoughts and if you feel sad, angry etc you need to re-think your thoughts and get distracted. She said that she has a sculpture of hands making a bowl shape...and she reffered to them as God's Hands. And when she has things on her mind that she knows she can't control, she writes them on a small piece of paper and "puts them in God's Hands" Instead of asking "Why Me?" she asks "Why Not Me?" "It would be okay for my neighbor or sister to have cancer, but not me?"
She is also a cancer survivor and said that "you can't control the cancer, but you can decide if you are going to fight it. When you are faced with a decision in life you usually always have to choose between two things you want or two things you don't want. Your choices might be do I want cancer or do I want Chemo." NEITHER....but those are your options.
She talked about that "all this is temporary and only God knows the big picture" and that we just need to focus on the quality of life and not the quantity of life. Because everyone can die in 10 months.
She helped me a ton to get through today.
I started the "IPI" (ipilimumab) treatment today. It took 2 nurses, and a PICC line team 8 times to finally get the IV started. I WAS a pin cushion today.
Once the IV was in the infusion was given to me for 90 minutes, and then they observed me for an hour to make sure that I would not have any side effects.
IPI is supposed to help shrink the cancer tumors and with the combination of radiation therapy it can even show NED (no evidence of disease) or remission, It is not chemotherapy, but more of a immunotherapy drug, to try to get my immune system to fight the cancer.
The schedule is radiation 5 times over a 2 1/2 week period. And 1 IPI treatment 1 a week every three weeks over a 12 week period (so four doses).
Dr Grossman told me that based on the side effects that I had with IL2....this will be a kitten.
I spoke to a new therapist "Gabby" today and she was AWESOME. I wish she could come talk to my Relief Society Sisters. She talked all about how feelings come from thoughts and if you feel sad, angry etc you need to re-think your thoughts and get distracted. She said that she has a sculpture of hands making a bowl shape...and she reffered to them as God's Hands. And when she has things on her mind that she knows she can't control, she writes them on a small piece of paper and "puts them in God's Hands" Instead of asking "Why Me?" she asks "Why Not Me?" "It would be okay for my neighbor or sister to have cancer, but not me?"
She is also a cancer survivor and said that "you can't control the cancer, but you can decide if you are going to fight it. When you are faced with a decision in life you usually always have to choose between two things you want or two things you don't want. Your choices might be do I want cancer or do I want Chemo." NEITHER....but those are your options.
She talked about that "all this is temporary and only God knows the big picture" and that we just need to focus on the quality of life and not the quantity of life. Because everyone can die in 10 months.
She helped me a ton to get through today.
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