Letter To My Dr's And An Update For You

Dr. Dan, Dr. P and Michele,

Just wanted to give you all an update and get some advice from you regarding what is going on here in Phoenix.

I met with Dr. J on September 8 after having Gemzar and Carbo on September 2.  He felt like the tumor on the vaginal/anal wall was approximately 1.2-1.5 cm, which means it has shrunk given Dr. P and Dr. G felt like it measured 2.5-3cm in June.  Dr. J switched from the Carbo to Cisplatin because he said he has seen better results.  So on September 15 I had the Gemzar 1000 and Cisplatin 25.  Of course I told them my white count and ANC were going to go down this week and I was right.  Today when I went to have chemo my ANC was 0.64 and the WBC was 1.92.  The nurses here keep telling me that the carbo is still in my system which is making my counts go down, but that doesn't make sense to me given they were up last week.  I seem to think this is related to the Gemzar.

Another issue that occurred last week is that my HBG was at 9.4 so they started me on Aranesp.  Today my HGB was 9.1.

My biggest concern is that the CA-125 only went down 1 point.  It was 77 on August 27 and last week it was 76.  When I was originally diagnosed in June it was 67 and then went up to 83 in July.  Should I be concerned about this number?

I did receive Neupogen today and will have it the next 2 days.  They will give me Neulesta if my counts ever go up between chemo treatments. 

Do you think I should continue on this regimen or should I switch to a different chemo.  Every time I've had the Gemzar my counts made it so that I couldn't have chemo the next week.  I think the Gemzar is causing the ANC and WBC to decrease and not the Cisplatin or Carbo.  The only time I was able to have 2 treatments in a row was when I only had carbo.
 
Dr. J said he will keep me on chemo until my CA-125 is in the teens or single digits and then I will have 2 rounds when my numbers get to that point.  At this point it could be next Summer given I'm not seeing any progress.

I do plan on going to Boise and having treatment November 19-the holidays.

I'm trying to have patience, but I don't know if I'm doing so great with that characteristic. 

Would love to know your thoughts.