It’s yet again been a while since I’ve written. We’re now two more triple whammy cycles into the program and have also have a set of diagnostic scans done. Along with one hospital stay just to add a new dimension to the whole thing.
After cycle 8, Tim’s neutrofil count went to zero. He started to run a fever the following weekend, got better and then the fever returned. It was above the threshold of 101.5 and so he had to be admitted and spent a few days in the hospital while they administered antibiotics, did tests, gave him some RBC and neutrofil boosters and monitored him. It was Lucille’s turn to stay overnight and so she did just that. In the end, no infection was found and so the belief is that he just experienced a zero neutrofil fever. Something that apparently happens to some patients.
What that did do was make it imperative to administer Neulasta as part of the whammy cycles. And so these next two cycles included that additional step. His bone marrow responded well and at cycle 10, his neutrofil count was quite high into the normal range.
Cycle 9 was done a little off timing on a Monday rather than Friday to allow Tim to fit some fun into his schedule the previous weekend. But it was costly because he wasn’t able to recover quickly and spent most of the week away from school. The fun stuff was to participate in the HS Honors band as one of the tuba players. A guest conductor works with the students on Friday afternoon and all day Saturday to prepare 5 pieces for a concert on Saturday night. Students participate from a lot of the local high schools and so the group is quite large. It was a great experience for Tim and for us to attend a concert that also included the band from BSU.
And so it was time for 6 month scans. No matter how much the doctors indicate that they don’t expect to see anything it still is a nervous time because what if something does show up? This set was to be used by both the radiation oncologist and the regular oncologist. The scan was limited to the neck and chest and so Tim did not have to drink a contrast medium for the lower abdomen scan. Just the quickly administered IV contrast while getting the CT scans done. When we reviewed the scans, the radiation oncologist was extremely pleased. He spent a lot of time reviewing where the tumor had been and how the tissue looks now vs. at the beginning. And also the lungs which are the likely home of new tumor sites are all free of indications. Woo-hoo!
Tim is on a vincristine break again since cycle 9. After this next cycle (#11), he’ll have four more vincristine treatments and then after cycle #13, no more. These are good breaks to get because his feeling in the toes and fingers gets wiped out and recovers a little when he is on break. Hopefully, this last set of full on treatment doesn’t dig too deep into his reserves. He also now has a learned response of getting nauseous when he goes to the clinic, so anytime we can avoid that, it’s a good thing.
Next up is just a blood count to see he’s responding to the Neulasta. Over this past weekend, one could tell his platelets were pretty low because he was getting bloody discharges when blowing his nose. But I did get to spend a whole weekend with just he and I, since mom and his sister were off at a soccer tournament. His strength was starting to come back from cycle #10, so we were able to go out to a movie.
--bob
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