TREATMENT PLAN

June 10, 2024

I have a treatment plan, but not yet the actual treatment. I would estimate that Dr. Z probably stayed with us about ten minutes this morning. But the rest of the explanations, warnings and instructions will come later.

The first thing we asked was for him to explain the results of the biopsy. My sister was correct in thinking it was about the markers that tell the difference between types of cancer, in my case, the difference between kidney and lung cancer. Mine is definitely still kidney cancer.

We discussed three treatment options, immunotherapy, targeted oral meds, and nothing. Dr. Z and I were 100 percent agreed on all three: no immunotherapy due to my JRA, no just sit and do nothing, try the oral meds. It was pretty cool, because he had this form on the computer where he’d enter my type of cancer, then the type of kidney cancer, my age, my health insurance and a bunch of other things. He did mention the name of the meds we’re going with before doing the form, and it was one that the form suggested. My insurance is medicare, and the top choice was one that the doc referred to as “not in favor” anymore. Not as effective as it should be. I told him to pick the one that would work for me. He also told me that there is financial aid for things like this. My sister looked up the med later and saw that medicare does cover it, but maybe it will not cover the whole cost. Not sure at this time. Side effects include mouth sores, fatigue, nausea, weakness, weight loss, and so forth. The ones he emphasized the most were the mouth sores and the fatigue. I remember Dad’s mouth sores, and how he drank ensure during the chemo days. Ensure, here we come!

I did not walk away with a prescription, or one called in to my pharmacy, waiting to deliver it to my door. The drug has to be compounded, made for me, and then it will be delivered to me in person. When it’s ready, a nurse practitioner will call me to go over all the info I need to know while taking this into my poor body. This is something I will continue to take from now to who knows when. I will continue to have regular CT scans and blood work to check the progress of the treatment, and of course what the meds are doing to my blood and all that fun stuff.

I haven’t looked up the drug myself yet, but I’m sure I will in the next day or two. The only thing we saw in terms of dietary restrictions were no grapefruit and no grapefruit juice. Not hard since I don’t eat or drink grapefruit! By the way, the drug is called Cabometyx. Isn’t that a hell of a name? Where do they come up with these? Couldn’t it be something cute like CANCER BE GONE? Lol.

So, until I hear from Ms. NP, or perhaps Mr. NP, I will be playing that hurry up and wait game again. Remember that game. Oh fun. And much as I hate answering my phone, I’ll be jumping to answer it for the next little while!