Cancer Treatment Update #3

Results of a blood test + more intense side effects of chemo

Hey there! If you’re new here, this is a cancer update for my husband, Bryan — not my usual Wednesday newsletter. For the backstory, you can see previous updates HERE. If you’re here for the non-cancer content, I’ll be back on Wednesday with The Usual.

The Cancer Detection Test

Bryan had his second Signatera¹ blood test on July 3rd, and it came back NEGATIVE. This is great news! It establishes a trend from the initial Signatera test that was taken before his first round of chemo, which also came back negative. This means that his specific cancer continues to not be detected in his blood!

Signatera is a fancy test that’s tuned to the DNA of Bryan’s specific cancer cells, and it’s designed for early detection of relapse. He’ll continue to get this test every three months for the next couple years, which gives us a little peace of mind going forward.

Chemo Round 3

I’m a little behind on these updates, because Bryan had his third round of chemotherapy on Tuesday, June 20th. Here’s the video we recorded on our way to that appointment:

The side effects are continuing to get more intense. Here are the highlights:

• Tums mouth explosion. Not sure what the science is behind this, but he started chewing some Tums to ease his upset stomach and had to immediately spit them out into the sink. He said it was like a painful explosion in his mouth, as if Pop Rocks were trying to kill him. No more Tums for him!

• Full body sneeze explosion. Bryan tends to sneeze in a fit of 5-6 sneezes, and for a few days following his infusion, he said it felt like a full body explosion of pins and needles when he sneezed. Not fun.

• Neuropathy. This is the side effect that makes his fingers, toes, and the inside of his mouth sensitive to cold. He can have a nerve reaction to picking up a chilled cocktail glass, and one morning his fingers had a reaction to the cool morning air when we went for a walk. He also started having some reactions in his mouth to room temperature and warm food and liquids, particularly when he lets it hit him in the jowls.

• Fatigue. He crashes most afternoons during the infusion week and has to take a nap. It gets a little better during the off week.

• Hair loss. We were watching tv one night when Bryan ran a hand through his hair and a bunch came out. Even when you know it’s coming, it still hits you hard.

Except for the fatigue and hair loss, which were expected, the symptoms this time around kind of freaked him out. It’s all just so weird.

(Here’s where I would normally insert some dark humor, but I’m tired and my back hurts so I’m not massaging the prose today.)

Valet Parking

Our experience at Fred Hutch² has been extraordinary — a stellar example of customer centered care. I plan to write more about this later because UX writing and creating customer experiences is adjacent to what I do for work, and I’m a little nerdy about it. Also, if you’ve been around awhile you may recall we started this journey within a different health care system called Swedish Providence, and that experience was not great in comparison.

Anyway, one of the unexpected delights of our biweekly visits to Fred Hutch for chemo infusions is the ease of parking. We discovered our building has valet parking, and it never costs more than $4. On the days we visit get Bryan’s pump disconnected, we’re only there for 15 minutes and the parking is free.

In the grand scheme of all that’s happening, this is a small thing. But also a huge relief and one less thing to think about. Rather than searching for street parking or winding our way down the layers of the other building’s parking garage, the auto-park valet gives us one less thing to navigate and allows us to arrive just in time for our appointment in the middle of a work day.

Here’s a video of how it works:

Okey dokie. Heading off to make dinner — comfort food has been requested due to the all day nausea, so I’m whipping up some easy peasy Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken and a pot of rice.³

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you again on Wednesday.

1. You can read about the Signatera testing HERE.

2. Fred Hutch’s website.

3. It was Saturday afternoon when I wrote this, but I forgot to post it. 😂