Doctor visit today

First of all, to catch up...Dad went Saturday morning to the hospital to get his last blast of steroids needed for the first round of chemo (his regular oncology office was closed on Sat.). He also received the great and powerful Neulasta shot. The weekend found him a bit puny feeling...he had some nausea (no throwing up) and he had to take an anti-nausea pill once or twice over the weekend. He ate mostly mild foods...I made some home-made potato soup and some chicken noodle soup. He had some heat issues with his head ...sort of a face and neck flushing...from the steroids...off and on, but got through that. On Monday, he started getting a loud ringing in his ears...he said it sounded like crickets. That went away some, but followed by some hearing loss. That has been coming and going and is still a slight problem. As of Monday, he is eating regular food. I've been trying to use more red meat (ugh!) to bump up his hemoglobin and he's found that eating smaller meals with healthy snacks in between works well. He went back to work full time on Monday and is doing fine with that. He gets a little tired slump early in the morning, but a Nutrigrain bar or a homemade banana muffin gets him going again. He's made it til 5:00 each day.

Now...to today. We met with his doctor and found out one thing...this particular chemo recipe is what the doctor called "the mother of all chemos". Dad said he knew it was some sort of horse-kicking stuff. So all in all the doctor was pleased that Dad just had minor nausea and he understood the tiredness...that's to be expected and then some. He was concerned about the hearing loss and will be assessing that next week and before the next treatment. It is a result of one of the chemicals that effects the nerves and can effect hearing. He said that with this chemo recipe that a transfusion probably will be necessary....the doctor said his blood was probably flatlined...it can really wipe out things. He was waiting for Dad's blood results to come back and thought a transfusion might be needed today due to the types of chemo Dad had. I was concerned about Dad working with his blood compromised so I told the doctor that Dad was back to work. He said that was great...that he likes to see that. So we go back next week to check on things...blood work and meet with the doctor. The doctor said the following week he wants Dad to start the chemo on either Monday or Tuesday so Dad wouldn't run into the weekend following that. So with that, the doctor left the room.

The nurse came in shortly after that with Dad's blood results and she was very impressed and said Dr. Hutchins hadn't seen the results, but he would be very happy with them. Dad's white blood cells are NORMAL and red blood cells just a tad below normal and hemoglobin is only slightly below normal , but what the nurse called fantastic. So we were very happy to see those results.

Dad has already headed to work and I'm also headed to work. I'll report in after next week's doctor visit.