Decisions, Decisions...

I had a tough day yesterday (Sunday) since I didn't really get to sleep until 4 AM. When I woke up at 11 AM, I felt some pressure in my chest and I was extremely tired. I laid there until 11:30 and then finally got up. The pressure in my chest wasn't really bad, but I knew that the fluid was building up some more. After getting the day started--meaning popping some herbs, drinking my smoothie and tonic--and turning on whatever football game there was on, I started thinking I better get the process going on Monday to have the fluid drained. Even though the pressure wasn't bad, I knew it needs to be done soon or risk Christmas at Swedish. The rest of the day was spent reclined in the easy chair with an ice pack on my head fighting for whatever energy I could muster to get something to eat. I did have a nap, was able to get some dishes done, then dinner was saved when Beth got home and made some veggie taco's. Without her, I would have given up on dinner and went back to bed. I know I need to keep on eating but sometimes either Beth has to rescue me or I'll just drink some juice and call it good. Hardcore fatigue kills the appetite and the desire to do something about it. I couldn't even lift the cell phone to call for a Phad Thai delivery. However, this is a rare problem so far.

So I got up this morning (Monday) and felt much better. I got my day going and called Dr. Olsen's office to get things going for heart draining. The pressure in my chest was about the same as the day before and still not much of an issue. But I still felt I need to get things going so Christmas can be spent anywhere but Swedish. Dr. Olsen's appointments were booked up for the week so I called Rebecca at the Wellness Center to let her know what I want to do and to also let Dr. Chen know as well. I told Rebecca that there wasn't any appointments available. She said she would take care of it. Rebecca is one of Dr. Chen's nurses and tends to make things happen. By the end of the day, she called back and had lined me up an appointment for Dr. Olsen in the morning.

I went to my appointment with Dr. Sodhi in the afternoon. I went early so that I could stop by Wholefoods in Bellevue to pick up a few things. I got to Dr. Sodhi's office and while waiting in the waiting room, I clumsily knocked over some Christmas decorations. The office ladies told me not to worry about it but who couldn't with a red face? I got Dr. Sodhi caught up on the hospital visit, I hadn't seen him since before going in, as well as the chest difficulties. We talked about the choice I had to make about either doing the standard tap and drain (pericardiocentisis) of the heart sack or to install the paricardial window. Dr. Sodhi felt I should stick with the tap and drain for now. If this fluid buildup continues with the cancer treatment, then maybe the window. I will, of course, listen to what the cardiologist has to say and take Dr. Chen's recommendations under consideration.

Also, as I thought, Dr. Sodhi leaned towards Dr. Gignac's recommendation on stopping the curcumin on the day of and 2 days after chemo. Dr. Sodhi said he has seen similar reports suggesting curcumin could reduce the efficacy of carboplatin but said it wasn't supported with good, hard science. Basically, there has not been any studies involving patients who were on chemo and curcumin and patients on chemo but not curcumin. Curcumin is now just getting recognized as a cancer fighting herb so those studies may one day come. Dr. Sodhi did go over some research studies he thought would perk me up. He had this study that was done showing the success rates of using Ayurvedic medicine with conventional cancer treatment. The study included 800 patients and broke them down by those whose treatment was just surgery, chemo, radiation, or a combination of one or two of them in conjunction with Ayurvedic medicine. Then the results were compared to another group of patients using just standard conventional treatment without alternative therapies. Basically, there was an approximate 35% to 50% (rounded numbers on my part) increase in the 5-year survival. Obviously, this study wasn't cancer or stage specific. I figure that if you substituted Ayurvedic medicine with other alternative medicines, you would see some or similar increases in the survival rate. The gist is that you can't rely just on conventional medicine, as I have said before, you have to add more tools to the tool belt.

So more to come after I see the cardiologist...