So I've officially been on Sprycel now for thirty days. Oh, the mouth sores. For the past few weeks my mouth has felt like I ate a box of Captain Crunch, and then gargled with vinegar. I've had no less than eight mouth sores in 4 weeks. At the moment, I'm sore free, but I admit to that with reluctance, as putting that out in the universe may be just asking for it.
I've also stopped exercising completely. My treadmill had a mass failure last month, and although Keith found me a replacement within two weeks, I really embraced the whole "sleeping in" thing, and have not been able to find the motivation, thus far to get back on the proverbial horse. My energy levels right now are low, and so is my motivation. Not exactly feeling spry on the Sprycel. Luckily, with the recent time change, I have enough daylight left when I get off work to exercise in the afternoon.
Not that I do...but I could.
Also, luckily, I no longer feel ravenously hungry ALL THE TIME. I've stopped eating like a wolverine -both in quantity and quality - (I hardly want meat any more at all...I could easily and happily become a vegetarian these days) so I'm hoping that paired with my newly sedentary lifestyle cancel each other out, and does not add to more weight gain.
So far, I've only been sick a couple of times on the new medication. I've found that if I eat a carb rich meal before I take it, I feel much better, and can usually stave off the nausea.
According to all of the information that I've been able to gather about dasatinib (Sprycel) the side effects are mostly more mild than those seen with Gleevec, although there is the potential for more serious side effects. Sprycel can cause both pleural effusion - a condition in which excess fluid collects in the pleural cavity - and a more serious condition call Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension - which is
"a disease in which the pressure in a patients pulmonary arteries becomes dangerously high and puts a strain on the heart."
Lets seer clear of either of those, eh?
I haven't seen the doctor to check my numbers...as you'll recall, the last appointment I had, I did not get a gold star. At the end of January my BCR-ABL cancer measurement was at over 40%. When you're looking for zero, forty is not good. It's like getting 40% on a test...40% is a big fat "F" for failure. So I'm kinda just swinging in the wind, here, right now. Is the Sprycel working? Or are my cancer cells growing out of control again? All will be decided at my next appointment, April 10th.
Tune in for the dramatic results.
