Chemotherapy Round 3 is over

Carl third Chemotherapy session went very well. He checked into Froedtert Hospital Monday, February 8, 2010, and came home Friday, February 12, 2010. As in Course 2, the first two days he felt pretty good. This time he started getting very tired on Wednesday, and was pretty "out of it" on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday he felt fairly bad , and told me not to come and visit before I picked him up. (Carl describes it like feeling you are coming down with the flu, which I interpret as achy, tired, unwell, and not interested in food.)

The doctors send him home on Friday from inpatient chemo with a boatload of prescription medicines for nausea, pain, and more. (7 different prescriptions, I think, some crucial, some of optional, some of them to counteract side effects, etc.) On Saturday and Sunday Carl felt fairly bad whenever the prescriptions wore off, but otherwise rested and watched the Olympics with the children.

On Sunday morning I drove Carl back to Froedtert for a Neulasta shot. Neulasta is prescription drug, administered as an injection, that boosts white blood cells in the body. It is apparently very expensive. (Somewhere between $1000 to $7000, give or take a thousand, the nurse guessed.)

On Monday Carl rested and didn't go to work. He did leave the house to briefly go to Homestead High School to talk about Tom's High school schedule for Sophomore year.

It's Tuesday Feb 16, 2010. Carl went into work today. He let me drive him in, and agreed that this time around he will be taking it easier then last time, where he admits he might have overdone things a bit. We are back to a happy place where the anxiety is pushed off, at least for the time being, and we can pretend things are normal.

Thank you again, for all your support and prayers.

First Day of Chemo, Round 3.

Monday, Feb 8, 2010. Off to Froedtert once again, before 8:00 AM. (Thank you Dawn, for getting the children off to school.)

Carl's blood levels were good, he's healthy, so he was cleared for more Chemo. (If Carl's levels weren't good, he would have to wait until he was better. Then he could come back, so that chemotherapy could make him sick enough to get his blood levels unhealthily low again. This is what is done to kill cancer cells...)

Chemotherapy Round three started Monday afternoon in Room 6 of Froedtert's 4th Floor North Tower. We refer to 4NT as "The Spa". Tests, appointments, and admitting procedures took up the majority of the morning.

We had a family meal Monday night. Our independent panel of children randomly tested room service entrees and decided they would be happy to come back for more.

(I think that the food service may change room service delivery rules if we eat there too much, but the party was fun. Room service takes Visa.)
Party entertainment included watching TV.

Carl is having even more Chemotherapy then last time. There are four bags of chemotherapy drugs and 4 pumps going this time, versus 3 bags & pumps last time. The liquids are "infused" or delivered into the blood over 22 hours. Then Carl gets to take a shower, and the staff starts another 22 hour infusion. He should get 4 of these 22 hour infusions over the next 4 days, ending on Friday.

The Brown bag chemical is not embarrassed or shy. It is covered with a brown bag because it is light sensitive. Weird, huh?

Go Carl Go. God bless you and give you strength. I love you, and we wish you were here at home with us tonight.

I am grateful that we live in the time and place where we can get the medical care we need so that Carl can come home in better health - in the long run. Thank you to the medical staff who cares for Carl and others with cancer, and the decades of medical, scientific and engineering knowledge, improvement and innovation that has gone into getting cancer care to where it is today. Many lives have been saved because these professionals have studied hard, worked late into the night, not always taken the easy route, and been inspired.