S0 we'll pack our lunch tomorrow and be there bright and early at 8:00 in the morning. Hopefully this recipe will do the trick! I'll be posting tomorrow to let you know how things are going.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Plan C
Dad went into the doctor here in Lincoln for a pre-treatment visit. He had some blood work done and everything looks good...hemoglobin is just a bit down...but not much. Two doctors here in Lincoln and one in Omaha determined that Dad would receive a different chemo treatment starting tomorrow. It is a different "recipe" than the other two. Tomorrow is a long day...about 8 hours. I think 3 or 4 hours is hydrating him because one of the chemicals is rough on the kidneys...so he has to have the extra ivs of fluid and drink lots and lots to flush it out of his system during and after the treatment (Nurse Ratchet also has him hydrating tonight in preparation). He will be given 2 chemicals and an iv steroid tomorrow. Then on Thursday he will be given 1 chemical and the steroid in the morning...lasting about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Then at 8:00 that night he has to go to the hospital to be given the other half of the chemical in the morning...it has to be given exactly 12 hours later...so hence, 8:00 pm. Again, it will take about 2 1/2 hours...so we won't be getting home til about 10:30 or 11:00 that night. Then on Friday he goes to the oncologist's for an injection of steroids...so less than 1/2 hour. And on Saturday he goes to the hospital for an injection of steroids (since the regular oncology office is closed on Saturday). This will be repeated after 3 weeks...only it will be started on Tuesday so that he won't have to go to the hospital for the final steroid (but will still have to go to the hospital on the evening of the 2nd day).
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I'll be thinking of you today and tomorrow, Dad!
ReplyDeleteI thought they were going to use the same recipe as the first time around. Why the change?
Matt...this is actually the recipe they were going to use before the Stem Cell Transplant idea was raised.
ReplyDeleteThey re-evaluated the recipe that was first suggested by the Omaha doctor. The reason was that any given recipe is always best the first time around...in other words, the first time a recipe is used you get the most out of it.By the second or third time around, it can lose some of it's efficiency because the body has figured out how to counter it...sort of like overusing antibiotics to where they are not effective. So with this new recipe, it will have full power to hopefully knock this thing out once and for all. The other reason is that one of the chemicals in the first recipe (I can't remember the name, but it's red in color) you can only use it a limited number of times..it can be harmful to the heart. So the Omaha doctor had planned on substituting a different chemical (blue) instead of that. But the doctors in Lincoln said the blue was still in the same family of chemicals and still could do damage, and if any damage would be done to his heart, that would mean a transplant could not happen.
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is that they have several choices of recipes and there is really no right or wrong answer because no one ever knows how an individual will respond to any one recipe. The conclusion this time is that this recipe appears to be the best choice at this time.
oh, ok. that makes sense now. thanks for the explanation!
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