On Thursday, November 11, 2010, Carl started a course of chemotherapy that featured the drugs Irinotecan and Vinchristine. The 'protocol' for this chemotherapy is a dose on Day 1 and Day 8. On Day 21, the patient can start the course again. The Day 1 and Day 8 doses are delivered through IVs into his port. He gets these doses at the outpatient Froedtert Cancer Center Day Hospital.
Under this protocol, Day 8 is tomorrow, Thursday, November 18, 2010. So tomorrow we will once again trek down to the Cancer Center. Carl will be connected to the IV for around 3 hours, making this one of the shorter chemotherapy sessions, although with the registration and waiting, we will end up being at the Cancer center more then 1/2 of the day.
Carl 'completed' one course of chemotherapy with the drug Irinotecan before, getting the drugs on Monday, October 18, 2010 and Monday, October 25, 2010. He tolerated the Irinotecan well, so the Doctor added the Vincristine to this course.
I hope these drugs are effective and that Carl can continue getting them for quite some time. At the end of the month the Doctors will check to see if the drugs are holding back the tumor.
Thank you again for all the encouragement and prayers.
So, isn't this kind of a boring post? I hope the photos from one of our trips to the pumpkin farm make it more cheery.
This last photo shows one of the side effects of the Adriomycin chemotherapy. (photo taken October 17, 2010.) Carl didn't loose all of his eyebrow or eyelash hair like some people do, but wow, did it thin out. Already his hair (and eyebrows, and eye lashes) are growing back in. Another reason I hope that Carl can use these drugs for quite some time.
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