Well, after our good news last week, we were a little bit disappointed after seeing Dr. McCarron today. Even though Brian is basically considered in remission right now, it doesn't mean that chemo is going to stop after his fourth round at the end of December. I guess we either didn't understand the process well enough or became confused somewhere along the way. I guess what threw us off was the stem cell process. Apparently, if Brian had elected to go the stem cell route, then after 4 rounds of chemo (each round consisting of 4 weeks), they would then do the harvest of the stem cells and he would then go the route of the stem cell process. But, if you elect not to go through stem cell or are not eligible for stem cell, then the CyBorD chemotherapy will go on for another 4-5 rounds (each round consisting of 4 weeks). What we thought was going to happen was that if he didn't have stem cell, then it was a matter of finishing up the 4th round and then go on some sort of maintenance therapy. So that was a little disappointing for both of us as now we still have to do weekly chemo which will now take us to April/May/June as long as we don't have to miss any. The good news in that respect is that she is now going to drop the dosage of the chemo medications now that his cancer has drastically reduced, and that should mean that Brian will hopefully not have to go through those couple of days of nausea and feeling unwell every week.
So, obviously now, our little getaway that we were hoping to plan is now going to have to be put off until the spring. We now potentially have to be driving in bad weather to get to Kitchener, so I am going to pray that if we have bad weather it is not on a Tuesday!
Of course, we are very disappointed, especially Brian, as he just wants this over with. He is sick of taking pills and getting poked and prodded with needles. He is getting long term bruising on his arms and his belly as they never get a break from the needles!
So we cried the blues today, but we realize this is all for the best in the end. We did ask what happens after the full rounds of CyBorD and for sure after that is done, it is just a matter of Brian being monitored and there will not be maintenance therapy after it is done and we hope remission lasts a long time.
It is all good though, we will just soldier on week by week and get through it. Then, when the spring sunshine comes back, we will be through and can enjoy a nice summer and maybe, just maybe, a little vacation for us both!
I'm not sure if I will be blogging before Christmas, so I would like to take this moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy 2107!!
