Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was great. When you have 4 days off, like Carl did, you can fill the days with lots of relaxation AND getting together with friends AND movies AND TV AND cooking. Perhaps a silver lining of Carl's cancer is that we are getting better at enjoying the weekends.


Carl's 'hobby' of cooking has reached new heights in 2010, and the whole family is glad. So, over the Thanksgiving weekend Carl made the Thanksgiving dinner. He made a turkey awesomely, used his new super cool meat thermometer, etc.

Carl's neck has begun to really bother him. At the beginning of 2010, Carl got a prescription for Oxycontin, 200 pills. Until the middle of November, Carl rarely had pain the required him to use a pain killer, usually Motrin or Tylenol. But in November, Carl started taking more pain killers, including prescription pain killers, and over the Thanksgiving weekend his neck was in pain almost every day.

On Monday Nov 30, 2010, Carl had a PET scan to see how the new Chemotherapy (Irhineotecan and Vinchristine) are impacting the tumor. On Thursday, Dec 2, 2010 Carl went to the Oncologist. He was scheduled to start a 3rd round of Irhineotecan and Vinchristine. But the Oncologist said the PET scan indicated that the Irhineotecan and Vinchristine was not being effective, and the neck tumor is showing metabolic activity. DXXM. I was hoping the neck pain was because the tumor was dying, not thinking about growing.

This means goodbye to these 'nice' chemotherapy drugs that let Carl's hair grow, and only take 2 days of chemo infusion every 21 days. We had to schedule new chemotherapy drugs, and they will take longer to infuse. But chemotherapy is better then no chemo, so....

The Oncologist gave Carl a new pain pill plan, and on Friday Carl's neck was already in better shape, pain wise. Wednesday Carl's pain was so debilitating that I was really worried.

With the change in plans, we got to have a nice weekend of getting ready for Christmas, eating at a really good Chinese restaurant (Yen Chings), and shoveling the first snow this winter, visiting the Domes and Discovery World, and more. I hope you enjoyed your weekend and Thanksgiving.

November Chemotherapy

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.

Feeling tired

Carl said to me today - 'I just don't know why I feel so tired right now.'

Hmmm... let me think? Maybe a large dose of Irinotecan and Vincristine on Thursday has something to do with it?

Or possibly surviving a weekend with four active children.

Whatever.