Tag Archives: Hexalen

Hexalen en route

Lucy’s still having some stomach issues. She has had stomach problems with every oral antibiotic she has taken even before her cancer. The Augmentin is done Thursday morning. She called the doctor and was told to take some Compazine for her stomach upset. The stomach problem might take a few more days to resolve. As such, her oncologist extended her disability to April 5th. She was originally scheduled to go back to work this Friday. That was disappointing for her, too.

Lucy’s legs are almost back to normal size. Her ankles are still somewhat stiff but are getting better. She still needs her walker because of her ankles, but her movement speed is getting faster.

Her Hexalen will arrive tomorrow. It sounds like she will be taking five capsules per day, but we can spread the dosage throughout the day.

Lucy’s sisters have been very supportive the past couple days. I ran into a long-time (I hate the word old in this case, because he isn’t even if I am!) friend yesterday and had a nice talk with him. Thanks Dave, you don’t know how much you helped! And thank you to everyone who sent emails of support!

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Alimta is out, Hexalen is in

The Alimta is not working as well as it should and is discontinued. Her CA125 level has been slowly increasing and the PET scan showed signs of increased growth. Her blood clots and the anticoagulation factor discovered in a previous blood test are a direct result of her cancer. The hope is to find a drug or drug combination that will stop her cancer from progressing. Lucy still has chemotherapy options available.

The new drug is Hexalen, an oral chemotherapy drug. Lucy will be taking it every day for two weeks, then get two weeks off. She will need weekly blood tests because of her clotting problem and the fact her blood counts were generally low because of the previous rounds of chemo. Her next blood test is a week from today, and it can be a port draw. That will give her arms a chance to recover from all the pokes she received in the hospital.

Her hemoglobin was still at 8.1, so that was a good sign. Her white count and platelet count were in the normal range. Her legs are slowly getting less swollen, she is having less discomfort, and she has not had a fever spike since leaving the hospital.

We still don’t know if the Pradaxa is working. There is no slam-dunk blood test that will help. The drug waiting in the wings is Arixtra, the injection drug mentioned a few posts back. The challenge will be trying to figure out if she has a clot forming. Both legs are still pink and have peeling skin on them. It will be tough to spot the tell-tale erythema (rash) or streaks from a forming blood clot. As I have mentioned, Homans’ sign is wrong a lot, and Pratt’s sign is not any better. If Lucy’s leg pain starts increasing or if she starts having fever spikes, we’re going to get her in for an ultrasound.

We’re both frustrated and disappointed at this time. It’s been hard trying to find the bright spots in today’s events. The biggest bright spot we have is your compassion. Thank you for that, it helps us through these rough patches.

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Filed under cancer battle, chemotherapy, DVT