My second round of chemotherapy started in early December 2021, this time around I am having a different cocktail of drugs, and that means that I won’t have the one from last time that meant I couldn’t touch cold things so a little plus for me there, I am now on FOLFIRI with the addition of panitumumab. The downside to the panitumumab is that it has given me a lovely rash which down to how my treatment schedule has gone this time around has never really gone since early December, also it gives me diarrhoea which I have been told could be worse (as could my rash) it is little comfort being told it could be worse though by the medical professionals when you are going through it, if anything it is more annoying. Another side effect I have had is in my right big toe which became infected around the nail in January 2022, it is still yet to heal properly and I am doing everything I can to avoid my left big toe also going the same way.
Much like my first chemotherapy block in early 2021, I’ve had plenty of delays but this time around not so much with my bloods. My first PICC line for this block of treatments was removed just before Christmas (after my 2nd treatment) as my arm developed a rash around it and just wouldn’t calm down. My second PICC line was removed within a week of having been put in (it allowed me to have treatment number 3) as I had the same issue again on my other arm this time. It was then arranged for me to have a PORT put in just under my collar bone, thankfully I got this appointment very quickly after it was decided that was the way to go for me to continue treatment, however it did mean there was a minimum of a 2 week delay whilst the site of the PORT healed (this then ran into 3 weeks because of course it hadn’t healed enough).
From this I managed to have treatments 4 and 5 without any further delays which was great and we finally also discovered what may have been causing my skin issues when the nurses cleaned my PORT having taken my bloods before treatment 4, overnight my skin came out in a blistery rash around the PORT (I was ok to carry on though), it turns out I have likely developed an allergy to chlorhexadine.
I have to say I am happier with the PORT over the PICC line, whilst it is a bigger process in terms of getting the PORT put in over the PICC, once the skin healed on my chest, the port sits just under the skin and I only need plasters on my skin when I head home with the chemotherapy pump attached, so there is a lot more freedom and I am less aware of it than the PICC line which was always sat there on my arm.
Mentally during this phase I have still found things hard, I am currently on a waiting list for a specialist therapist of talking therapies that deals with cancer. At times I have been able to switch off and I guess to some extend ignore what is going on (I doubt this is really helpful to me) but at other times its hard to switch off, the main thing that sets me off is the side effects of treatment, I can’t really block out running to the toilet and visiting it more frequently, plus when looking in mirrors I can’t really miss the rash on my face. Another thing I find hard is seeing different nurses (pump removals at home and dressing changes for that infected toe) as they obviously ask about treatment as they know I am a cancer patient, having to explain the situation I find myself in just brings it home again about what is going on.
I finally finished these 6 treatments on 22nd March and then had a CT scan on the 25th to see how the treatments have affected the cancer and got the results and next stage of the plan on 31st March. The scan showed that the treatments have been working and that the cancerous areas have shrunk, while seeing the oncologist we learnt that I have four areas in me that are cancerous, 1 around the liver and 3 around my bowls, neither my wife nor myself can remember being told this before but I guess there is a chance we were just in November with the overall summary of incurable cancer that we didn’t take this in. I will now be continuing with a further 6 full strength chemotherapy treatments before having another scan to see what they do. I am pleased that the chemotherapy has worked however the overall diagnosis does not change so as it stands I still have an incurable cancer, so it’s mixed feelings of it’s not got any worse, but the outlook hasn’t changed in the long run.
