I wrote this on Friday but was away with out internet and never got it posted, so "today" and "now" kinds of are Friday--days go by so quickly sometimes!
I'm back in oncology for my monthly visit and again my Neutrophils are too low to continue. Sigh.
So I'm off the 100mg, more bloodwork in a week, and hopefully starting again after that on the 75mg dose.
It's so frustrating!
I'm getting the feeling from my oncologist that I'm getting into the area where there are questions about whether the lower dose and the ratio of time off vs. time on are pushing out some of the potential benefits Ibrance would otherwise provide.
I have a CT scan scheduled for next month. No bone scan unless the CT results show the additional info would be useful. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm guessing it's a sign that the liver mets are the focus right now rather than the bone ones, but I could be wrong. The CT (and possible bone scan) will be the key to deciding whether or not we keep on with the Ibrance or give up its neutrophil slaying mean little ghost and move on to different drugs.
Of course, if the scans are good despite all the time off and lowered doses, that would be great. But at this point it's an "if" and not a "when".
Ok, it was never a "when" and always and "if" but the "if" just seems a bit bigger right now.
But the first rule of business is to grow back these poor beleaguered neutrophils.
I've written before about trying to "read" my healthcare providers. Trying to catch not just what they say but what it "means"--and the fact that I'm only right about 50% of the time doesn't even deter me from continuing to do it over and over again. It's a compulsion, I guess. My "reading" today makes me think my oncologist would be surprised if the scans were great. Happy, sure, but still surprised.
I agree with her recommendation to give the Ibrance another round (or however much of a round of Ibrance is under my belt after I get on those 75mgs by the time my scan appointment comes around) and then take a look then at what's going on. I'm just saying I don't think it will be a great surprise if any major benefit Ibrance might have given me may have been tanked by my neutrophils inability to tolerate Ibrance.
And if that's the case, we move on to the next thing and hope it's the great big wonderful success we're looking for. A.k.a. be pretty much as we'd hoped Ibrance would be.
Still, I feel great, so there is that. I don't have an discernible symptoms from those missing neutrophils. A few small side effects, some fleeting aches that may be cancer in the bones or may be the bones healing from the cancer (see, I can't even read me, much less other people, sheesh! no idea why I still keep trying to do that), but nothing I would pay much attention to if it hadn't been for the Ibrance/blood tests/cancer making me look).
And, for all we know, Ibrance could be doing the trick and we just need to get those scans to know it.
So I wait to grow neutrophils, I wait for tumor markers, I wait for the scans, and I keep trying to distract myself with a beautiful summer. And so it goes.
