Makoto's Pesky Cells

血液を出して、血液を入れる Tonight is the last infusion. Makoto seems good but very tired. She is often nauseous, but the nursing staff is very attentive and has been good about offsetting most of her issues with medication and other support so she is still eating well. Interestingly, she has returned to some of her pregnancy cravings of…

翻訳は下にあります。 With breast cancer chemotherapy regimens typically a large dose of chemo is given in a single setting, and then you leave for a week or two to recover. You need that time to recover. Leukemia laughs at this regimen. The basic regimen for standard Leukemia is 3 days of one chemo, every single day,…

翻訳は下にあります。 Again I will start with facts as we have them right now. As soon as the doctors started looking at Makoto’s leukemia they were trying to understand it’s mutations. The mutations that lead to the cancer determine how treatable it is, and how specifically it should be treated. Because Makoto was generally pretty healthy…

翻訳は下にあります。 Thankfully more good than bad so far but I will put the facts up top here and explain more down below. Makoto has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Here are some facts: Some things to know about AML: A little over a month ago, while walking daily up the very steep hill where…

Let me put the important stuff first so it’s not like one of those recipe blogs where they tell you their life story before the recipe. We didn’t get a pCR, but it was close. Six lymph nodes were removed, they were clear of disease, and didn’t show any sign of previous disease. All the…

The surgery was a complete success. Everything went according to plan. Dr. Oncology Surgeon said that while we won’t know for sure until the pathology report in a week or so, she examined and performed an x-ray on the sample from where the titanium clip was and it looked, ‘good’. That’s as good as we…

We got the results of Makoto’s pre-surgical MRI last week. They show no mass remaining, but some material around the “clip” which was a small titanium shard that was placed at the site of the original biopsy to mark the location of the original tumor for removal. This material surrounding the clip is either 1)…

Last Wednesday was the final infusion. So far the recovery has not been too bad. The standard stuff that Makoto is used to now, all fairly easy to control with meds and rest. The last examination was generally the same, a very tiny nodule that is barely there remains, but Dr. Oncologist thinks it may…

Dr. Oncologist, upon examination two weeks seemed actually surprised and said, “Wow! It’s very soft and flat. I feel like it is starting to break apart. The AC is definitely working.” This was honestly the first time either of us recall her being surprised. Today, two weeks later at the exam, she said that the…

日本語でのアップデートをすっかり怠っていてごめんなさい。アーロンの英語のポストの通り、６月から新しい抗がん剤（AC)は「赤い悪魔」と呼ばれているように、かなり副作用がきついのですが、２週間に１度のサイクルなので、投与後４−５日経つと何とか体調が戻ってきます。免疫が低くなっているせいで、５月に感染したクロストリジウム・ディフィシルという腸炎が、抗生物質で退治しきれず、１週間前に別の抗生物質を処方されました。５月の半ばはこの腸炎のせいで、かなりつらい思いをしたので、今度こそしっかりと除去できることを願っています。６月からはら、脱力感、吐き気以外の副作用としては、眉毛、まつ毛の脱毛、口腔カンジダ症および口内炎、味覚の低下（すべて金属の味がするんです）、などがありますが、どういう訳か食欲はかなりあり、特に濃い味のものを食べたくなるんですよね。カレーとか、ソース系のものは今まであまり食べたくなかったのですが、この数週間はお好み焼きとか、インド、タイ、日本のカレーなどをモリモリ食べています（笑）。 仕事も６月１日から３ヶ月間、休養のためお休みに入り、ワークホーリックだった私が仕事なしで毎日何ができるんだろうと不安でしたが、草廉と毎日３０分日本語の勉強をしたり、梅干しを作ったり、ギターを練習したり、散歩したり、と結構充実した毎日を過ごしています。＝ 来週の水曜日で３回目のAC投与。７月１５日が最後のAC=抗がん剤治療となり、手術は８月１１日の予定です。腫瘍はかなり小さくなったものの、触るとまだ小さなしこりがあるので、あと２回のACで消えてくれることを願っています。 いつも応援のメッセージをくださっているみなさん、中々返信ができずにごめんなさい。メッセージ、感謝しながら読んでますよ！