Hello again all!
I'm here for another check-in after both my follow-up after my 4th surgery, and my follow-up appointment with my hematologist after getting an IV iron infusion.
Surgery Follow-Up - My oncologist's nurse called me on the Thursday morning after my surgery to give me my pathology results over the phone. My cancer hasn't come back! But it had started to progress abnormally again. Suck. So, I am back to taking the cancer pills twice a day. Not ideal, since they cause increased appetite and weight gain. But hey, it's better than cancer! Haha! The nurse told me that I could cancel my follow-up appointment, unless I had any questions for my oncologist. I told her to go ahead and cancel it, since this was my fourth surgery. I'm an old pro! She cancelled that appointment and told me that my oncologist wants to see me back in 4 months. I'm scheduled to go back on June 1st. And I'll be on the cancer pills until then, and we'll see what happens at that time.
Iron Infusion -
I had my IV iron infusion on that same Thursday after my surgery. The whole process took about 3 hours from start to finish. I got there, was checked in, and called back. They inserted my IV and gave me both aspirin and benadryl, to help my body absorb the iron and to prevent itching around my IV site. Then I had to wait about 30 minutes for the IV to arrive from the pharmacy. It took another 30 minutes for the iron to slowly drip into my body, and once it was done, I had to wait 30 minutes to make sure I didn't have an adverse reaction to the iron. I felt fine, so they let me go. I expected to feel better right away, but it took me a few days to notice a difference. I'm not as tired as I used to be, I was able to drastically cut back on my caffeine usage! I'm still sleeping an average of 9 hours a night, but I think that also comes from recovering from surgery and being back on cancer pills. But I used to take a nap almost every day, even falling asleep during nap-time at work. Now, I'm not taking naps or feeling like I'm going to drop from exhaustion right before bed. I don't crave chewing on ice anymore, which is a major sign and symptom of iron deficient anemia.
Hematologist Follow-Up -
I saw my hematologist for a follow-up yesterday. He said that some of my iron numbers are still off, but that my iron count is finally in normal range! Probably for the first time in years. My red blood cells are still too small, but he's hoping that they'll get into normal range by the next time he see me. He let me cut down to only taking iron once a day, instead of twice. That takes me total daily pill count from 13 to 11! Yay progress! He wants to see me back in 3 months for repeat blood work, to see how my levels are doing. The cancer pill actually prevent normal periods, so he expects my iron levels to be in completely normal range when I come back in the middle of May. I hope so!
So, that's where I'm at right now. I have an appointment with my primary doctor in about a month, for a normal check-up. Then another hematologist appoint in the middle of May, and an appointment with my oncologist on June 1st. I'll update here after each appointment! Thanks for following and keeping me in your thoughts and prayers! :-)
