I've been trusting my two oncologists since they're the experts. So far I've been on full doses of a three week cycle where I am given taxotere, cisplatin, and 5-FU all on the first week, then two weeks off to recover, then repeat. The side effects used to be really bad, but they reduced everything by 25% across the board for my sixth round, which was my latest, and the nausea and anxiety got worse but nothing else.

@kingarthur
5-FU? Yeah, they're not joking about the F U part.

I'm hanging in there. I'm going to Colorado in a few weeks. :)

Let's punctuate every bullet point with a dramatic zoom-in!

I thought that was hilarious.

Nope, still dying from it as far as I know BUUUUUUT I have a PET scan tomorrow and a consultation with my primary oncologist the following Monday so we'll see what's happening then. I was told pretty definitively that I'm terminal. I should roughly be at the point where I have 13 months left but we won't know until I talk to the doctor. I hope that the PET scan tells us I can take at least somewhat of a break from chemo because that shit is awful.

I like owls like that one kid likes turtles. They start out cute and then turn majestic and deadly.

You got it!

Mid level practitioners have their place in the health care arena. That being said, this guys' patient education skills suck.

YES! We reduced all my chemo drugs by 25% across the board and found the culprit of the mucositis (mouth ulcers, etc) that was keeping me from eating is the 5-FU.

THIS TIME I DIDN'T GET IT, just some serious dry mouth. So yeah, it's working out.

Still got dat cancer dough.

My oncologists and my psychiatric and diabetes NPs don't talk to me like this. They're just like: keep your blood sugar below 200 and you've already lost 30 pounds, soooooo......no big whup.

See above. (from what they tell me, no, it's gonna get me eventually as the chances of healing completely from stage 4 esophageal cancer are about 1% but I have probably over a year before that happens).

Pupinia Stewart knows who I am? Awesome. Tell her I think she's turning into a great comic.

Maybe punch a tree? Plant a tree and punch it when it gets older to teach it that life is sometimes a kick in the nuts?

I dunno.

But yeah, a wizard may have done this to me. That or several jobs where there were no formal lunch breaks ever and I had to eat whatever I ate very, very fast. They say that if you don't smoke or drink regularly that the culprit of this sort of thing is likely acid reflux even if you don't feel it (and I didn't).

I'll punch a tree, bro.
Are we doing this???

Ghostbusters was fun. I think the problem people had is that it basically xeroxed the story beats from the original beat for beat, even if they couldn't articulate this.

Feeling good for now. Be careful on the Iraqi border!