Downtime Between Treatments

Well this week is the "off" week from the Clinical Trial. I have a CAT Scan scheduled for Friday Evening and I am still waiting for Dr. Heath's Nurse to call and confirm my Appointment with the Dr. Heath for Thursday.
Mean time, I say Dr. Jeff Forquer at the Hickman Cancer Center at Flower Hospital to go over my 6 month review with him. I asked him to look at the last CAT Scan from Karmanos, since the report noted a lymph node has increased in size and was pressing up against my bladder, thus causing me to having the urge to urinate more frequently and in some cases uncontrollably. I have taken the necessary precautions to prevent embarassing moments in my daily life. I wanted Dr. Forquer to see if I could do more radiation therapy to help reduce the lymph node
Well, I got the call from Dr. Forquer last night and he said that the lymph node is in the lower part of the Sacrum, Tail Bone Area, and it is in the same area that I had Radiation previously and it probably would be more harmful then helpful if I was to have more Radiation Treatment in the Area, so I mentioned to him that I have noticed in the last couple of days my urge and frequency to Urinate situation has gotten better and that I am not getting up 2 or 3 times at night and now I'm getting up 1 or 2 times; which are good signs that something is happening in a positive way. Dr. Forquer and I agreed that I could call them up and come back if I had any questions that I needed answered.
In the meantime, I have been thinking about what has been happening in the last few months, both from a personal and medical view point and I have not slept to well the last few nights. September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, which means increased advertisements of the symptoms and treatments available; but I suppose education is wonderful for those who want to learn and take action. My problem with this educational stuff being broadcast is, how many people who hear about it actually do anything about it? How many of these individuals, who has heard the about it and wants to do something about it, cannot do anything about it; since they have no insurance or afraid to see if they have Cancer? I don't know for sure. I know Carmen and I have chatted about this and she has several of the symptoms, but she is without health insurance at this time and I worry for her. Ok, that's the medical view point on the topic of Cancer, Ovarian Awareness Month. Personally, I feel good and have become more comfortable with Doctors, Nurses, and the general public telling me that I don't like like the "A-Typical" Cancer Patient; who exhibits the side-effect symptoms that most have. The Side-effect symptoms are Nausea, V omitting, Weakness, and Severe Fatigue. I do deal with fatigue in a minor issue and deal with as it hits me, but at the sametime I know it doesn't help when I stay up later then I should to get things in order, then having to get up at 4am to get into work by 6am, 4 days a week. The 10-hour shifts at work are not bad, but there are some days that I'll go home after working, eat dinner, then go to bed. Yesterday was one of these days, but instead of sleeping through the night, I only slept at most an hour then got up until around 11:30pm. I woke up this morning and felt good, but now that I've been at work for a little over 2 hours, I'm starting to fell fatigued. Lunch will be at 10am and I'll see how I am feeling then and buy a soda if need to.
The other thing that people do not take into account, is the person who has the cancer and their mental state. By this, I mean does the person suffer depression, ie: every day blues or severe depression that requires treatment? I will admit to being depressed at times, but I tend to start to get myself involved with other activities that helps to keep me active mentally and if this doesn't work, then I surround myself with some comedy or friends.
Well, for now I am just fatigued and dealing with it on day to day basis. and waiting for the CAT Scan results.

Clinical Trial, Update

Ok, I've been on this 2nd trial since September 1st and so far have not had any major side-effects, minor side-effects I have experienced are: Fatigue and Headaches. The fatigue is the common side-effect and after the first week, I have been feeling really no more fatigue then usual. The last couple of nights I have been staying up a little later then normal, to get somethings completed. I know that I should be getting my sleep and resting as much as I can, but my personal life is starting to require more attention and I'm really not looking forward to providing the extra attention at this time; but it is necessary so that I don't loose personal items.
I have not discussed my personal matters on here before, but now I feel that it is necessary, so that I can vent/get it off my chest. Since the beginning of this year my Mum has been dealing with having her right hip replaced and she has been having problems with that not healing, infections and going back into the hospital a couple of times. The Orthopedic Surgeon she has is not very good at following up and giving forth right answers to the problems. This will be dealt with in good time. With Mum going into hospital this last time, she found out that the infection in her Hip was not as bad and Surgeon thought and he didn't have to remove the hip, so he packed the hip with antibiotics and sent her to rehab. While Mum was at home she fell a couple of times and the local Fire Department was called out. While Mum was in hospital a woman from Adult Protective Services made a visit and forced her way into the house, scaring the crap out of my eldest sister. Bottom line here, Mum wasn't allowed to go home, since it was a 2 story home and she had to climb stairs to get to the restroom...This caused tensions to run high and talk amongst the family that Mum was going to be moving into a house that had everything on the first floor, which is what we have been trying to do for sometime now, so this is a blessing for us. The move of Mum's stuff is being taken care of in a manner that is not the best, since I still have items at the house and couple of them have come up missing and my inquires into where they are at has been met with resistance. The difficult part of this, for me at least, is not letting my emotion get the best of me and causing more problems then necessary. Plus, when a few of the items that have been moved, no one called me to ask about my personal items what I would like done with them.
OK, enough of my personal life drama and on with the Clinical Trial....LOL!! I have been most amazed at the attention I have been getting each time I am in the Phase 1 Unit, which is good, since I get this from every Nurse in the Unit, at first I was a little freaked out, but now that I have been going up there, I am getting use to it. It is refreshing also to see that they take the time to check on my well being, offer assistance when necessary, or a bit of encouragement when needed. I will be ending this, since the calls here are starting to pick up and I'm needed.