Day Five

We survived the big birthday bash weekend. Charlie’s twelfth birthday was yesterday. This is a big birthday. Next year he’ll be a teenager and he is struggling with the transition to junior high. Given the chaos of this last year, we wanted to make this birthday a biggie. Madeline got Poland for her big day this year. Charlie got some great gifts, like the road bike he wanted, and a sleepover with three good buddies. They stayed up until 5am on Sunday morning. My apologies to the parents, but as Richie said, “This is what they are supposed to be doing!” We ended the weekend with a visit to his favorite restaurant with Tony, Alex and Simon – a boy couldn’t ask for a better time!

On the cancer front, the new drug I am taking is called patupilone. I don’t know why it is not capitalized like other cancer drugs, maybe because it isn’t a registered trademark name yet. I find this aspect of the whole drug industry rather interesting – must be some big money (and maybe egos) wrapped up in this. It makes sense. This is big stuff, hopefully life altering stuff involved.

So this patupilone is an epithilone. And this kind of antitumor medication is supposed to bind to the intracellular microtubules, which are essential to cell growth, and inhibit that growth. Right now, our hope is to stop the growth of the cancer.

It is day five since the infusion of the new drug. I was told to expect a reaction anywhere from 24 hours, but more likely 7-9 days, after the infusion. Over the weekend, I felt slightly nauseous, really just ambivalent about food. I am eating because I know my body needs it, but not because I feel particularly hungry. I could also experience diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fatigue and neuropathy. I am hoping for the best, preparing for the worst and really just living day to day. This is not a bad thing.

Today, I feel good. I have errands to run, children to rear and a rug or two to vacuum. Life is good.