First of all, we've taken me off of the Vicodin. The amount of Tylenol was too high. The recommended dosage was giving me 6 grams of Tylenol. Way too much for my liver to have to put up with. Now I'm taking time released morphine and I have Norco to handle break through pain. The Norco is pretty much the next step up in Vicodin, but much lower Tylenol. The morphine seems to do the trick so far. We're going to see how that goes, we made need to make modifications in dosage later on.
My Radiation Oncologist is going to review the latest CTs and PET scans. Based on the pain I'm having in my back, she may recommend one more PET before making a decision on proceeding with radiation. If cancer has moved to other spots besides the liver area, we may not be moving forward with this treatment plan.
If we do go forward, it will take about 7 - 8 weeks total. about 2 weeks to get everything set up and 5-6 weeks for the course of treatment.
Side effects I'll possibly see are nausea, sun burn like symptoms at the target point (maybe even blistering), and fatigue. The chemo pill I'll have to take will also have its own side effects.
While a possibility, but not likely, I may get some spine damage from the radiation.
A possibility as well is that I may get some ulcers because of the location of the tumor and it's nearness to my stomach.
And finally, a high likelihood that my right kidney will be wiped out during this activity. That leave one kidney and the likelihood of higher blood pressure to manage.
So there we go... an update.
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