The story of my cancer journey
Spoke this morning with my medical oncologist who was very pleased with the decrease in creatinine levels yesterday.
We are now back on track to slowly reducing the steroid doses again. This time we won't reduce the dose by as much, as as quickly. We will reduce the dose weekly by just 10 mg. This should help keep us on track without cutting the steroids back too much, too quickly.
So, all in all, back on the original treatment plan.
Hi All,
Had a follow up appointment with my medical oncologist today to review how the Steroid treatment is going.
My creatinine did drop by 76 points in the past 10 days which is excellent news. Right now they are weening me off the Steroids slowly, but need to be carefully monitoring my creatinine to ensure that the steroid dose continues to be effective. It is possible if the steroid dose is too low, or weened off to fast, the creatinine levels will go up again.
So for now they are going to continue to monitor me through weekly bloodwork. Hopefully the creatinine will continue to come down.
There are really only two outstanding issues that I am trying to deal with right now.
First, my left thigh and buttocks is quite sore, aches frequently and in some cases I am unable to put any pressure on my leg at all without feeling pain. This was most likely caused by the awkward position they had my legs in for my last stent replacement surgery. It is either muscle strain or sciatica issues. Either way, it will take some time to heal - possibly weeks to a few months.
Secondly, by the end of the day (mostly after dinner) I move into this phase where I am often unsteady on my feet, dizzy and lightheaded. I have many medications that cause this. It's difficult in the evenings, as Jamie has to help me sometimes move through the house as it can hit me at any time. My hope is that once we get back on track with my creatinine, and perhaps if they remove the ureteral stents, they may be able to take me off of some of these current medications.
But all in all, I can live with those two small issues right now as I am at least moving in the right direction.
Well, we expected it to happen. The side effects of the Steroids are now starting to pop up.
My face and mid section is now slightly looking a bit more bloated with water weight. It's not too bad at this point, but may get worse before it gets better.
My blood glucose has shot up to very high levels now, although I have been managing it fairly well at keeping it down with the use of insulin adjustments.
My sleep is slightly more challenging as the Steroids does cause some sleep disruption, I have moved to taking the Steroids first thing in the morning so that is kind of wears off by night time.
All of these side effects are temporary, and will return to normal following the end of the steroid treatment.
For the time being, I can live with the side effects as it's now showing a healing of my kidneys and my creatinine leves are coming down. That's the most important effect from the steroids.
But, I just couldn't avoid the negative effects of the Steroids, no matter how hard I tried. :o)