Sunday, April 29, 2012

Being Willing For Anything to Happen

The last three days, I have been sleeping throughout the day. Last Friday, I believe it was the pain killer OxyNorm which I taper off in favor of Ultracet, which is  a much milder pain killer but without the drowsiness effect. Still, I felt very tired. This morning at about 4.15am, I was awaken by the pain on my right rib cage. I had the pain starting last Saturday and thought it was only temporary but look likes it's going to stay. I find it difficult and painful to breath and cough. Even lying down straight, its painful as if the nerves are pulling. I have also lost my appetite. Yes, even with sirloin steak with black pepper sauce, I don't feel like eating. My stomach felt very full, so I had a little pineapple instead. After that, I got some mood back and was grateful, quickly ate my lunch/dinner.

After I woke up, I went downstairs to drink more water as I felt dehydrated. My hair and my back are soaked with sweat. I am now adverse to cold and hence I do not use any air-conditioner in my room. After that, I sat silently in contemplation trying to connect with my inner self. I have a decision to make. I wrote to the Klinik Herzog in Frankfurt, Germany and Dr Herzog has said I could go to his clinic for Hyperthermia treatment. Dr Herzog uses hyperthermia and combines his treatment with low dose chemo during the full body hyperthermia. During the 4 hour full body hyperthermia when the whole body are heated to over 42°C, the structure of the cancer cells becomes unstable and it is during this time that low dose chemotherapy are applied. The results are that despite using very low dose chemotherapy, the results are often very good and with no or little side effects. In my case, since chemotherapy has no effect on kidney cancer, Dr Herzog is proposing a package of sunitinib which is basically Sutent. The estimated costs is 21K for 20 days treatment and there are other costs not included. I recon that the costs could swell to 30K.

My doctor in New York has advised me that hyperthermia itself is not useful unless used as an adjunct to chemo or radiation (or immunotherapy) and he felt the best results are from immunotherapy. I have just received my cyclophosphamide or Cytoxan tablets for 60 days supply from New York. I am now have the following choices; start the metronomic chemotherapy for 60 days and look at the results to decide the hyperthermia treatment in Germany and vice versa? With my present condition, the logical choice would be to go Germany for hyperthermia treatment first. Once the decision is made, I will fly almost within the next few days.

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