Update

It's been a while since I've posted here, but wanted to give everyone an update.

Thanks SpongeBob for the advice you gave regarding my elevated triglyceride levels. I printed the replies out and showed them to him. While he couldn't find anything to correlate your comments in the medical literature, he did admit that it was a possibility there was a connection.

He decided to take me off the Cisplatin/Xeloda regimen and replace it with an older one - SALT (FU5, CPT11 and one other which I can't remember offhand). Since this has been around for quite a long time, and from what I had read about the original side effects (over half of the study participants dropping out because of side effects), I wasn't sure how it would work with me.

I have had 3 treatments so far (one more to go) on a weekly basis, and so far haven't had ANY unusual side effects. They give you an anti-nausea pill that you should take for the first 3 days after the chemo ($20 for the 3 pills), but I haven't even needed to take them.

When I went back to the doctor the last time (3 weeks ago) and had been off the Xeloda for a whole week my triglycerides had gone back to about 275, which is better than the almost 1300 I had been at a month earlier while on the pills. (It had come down to about 900 at one point, but the normal tops out at 150, so I was still way above normal even then).

Tomorrow (December 1), I'm scheduled for another CAT scan at Parkland (Dallas, TX) that we can use to check the status of the tumors under the Cisplatin/Xeloda and also use as a base for this treatment. The special procedures room they use for CAT scans is also what used to be (in 1963) known as Trauma Room 1 (where Kennedy was treated after being shot). They have a plaque mounted on the wall in memoriam.

Thanks for all of your support and prayers.