, which I did yesterday for the main pourpose of meeting with Dr. Tricot. He went through the medications that I have been taking and made several changes and explained what some of the pills are supposed to do for me. My edema persists and he doesn't want me to take any diuretics for it because of possible damage to my kidneys. He reinforced Nancy's suggestion (she attended the appointment with us) that I cut out salt again so I guess I am back on a salt free diet, which spoils the taste for me of most fresh fruit and vegetables. He also gave me a routine schedule for the next few weeks wherein I visit the clinic 2 days a week for blood work and visits with one or the other of the PAs. Then he will see me again in a month.The change in medication is aimed at killing off a virus that he called CMV and which he said almost everybody has in their system; it doesn't do anything most of the time, but I guess it can flare up and they want to rid me of it so I am taking something called Valcyte twice a day for 14 days. If CMV is negative then I take the Valcyte once a day until blood work shows it to be negative for 2 weeks, which may be around the time I see him again. On the next visit he said he will put me on a maintenance schedule that will require 2 visits a week every other week and will last for one year. After which they may declare me saved, i.e. cancer free, cancer in remission, or too old and tough to work with. But for now I feel good and am eating so good that I am putting on weight.
The visit to the clinic tomorrow is going to last 3 or 4 hours because they intend to give me an infusion of some form of phosporous for some reason that they did not disclose. Thu, the head phamacist said that they have to be certain they are going to use it because it takes some time to prepare and doesn't have any shelf life.
Three cheers!
ReplyDeletePeggy