First Phase Complete – Yea!!!!!
So radiation is now done and there will be no more chemo for the time being. Slowly, but surely, I am getting better and I think my target of going back to work on the Monday after Thanksgiving is quite reasonable. The other good part is that I will have been able to do this and still stay financially intact – not have to hit the savings accounts at all. In fact, it looks as though I will be able to still salt a little more money away, even during this 3- week out of work spell since it will be well-covered by short-term disability. A major worry off the back.
So the more I learn, however, about my overall reaction to chemo, the less I like it. We are still waiting for the lab to confirm, but it looks as if I am in the 10% of Caucasians who either do not have the DPD enzyme that allows me to metabolize the main chemo therapy used for colo-rectal cancer – 5FU – or that, while not completely missing DPD, I am deficient in it. Important, dear brothers, for you to know. It is a genetic abnormality so I don’t know if this runs in families but suspect it may. However, if I had known about DPD before I started treatment, I would have had the test done first, even if I had to pay for it. For those missing or deficient in DPD, the result can be fatally toxic if not caught early enough. I think I just missed a bullet. I’m still trying to get my electrolytes back to normal – still working on the magnesium, which is being stubborn. Personally, I think the enzyme test should be a standard pre-treatment test for all Caucasians. It would sure have saved me a lot of suffering. It takes a long time for these toxic chemicals to totally leave the system so recovery is that much longer. The real problem is still to be faced. It is quite common to put a patient on chemo following surgery to ensure that any stray cancer cells are killed that might have escaped surgery, particularly important because rectal cancer has a relatively high incidence of recurrence. However, all of the standard post-surgery chemo regimens all include 5FU as their basis. We’ll have to see how big the deficiency is and what we will do post-surgery, but I’m not going through what I have been through in the last 3-4 weeks again.
