Cycle 11

Cycle 11 came and went and was a bit of a tough one for Tim. As the treatments progress Tim has gotten more tired and worn out both physically and mentally so looking at the number of triple whammies ahead is difficult. Some of the anti-nausea regimen will have to be re-evaluated because they aren’t working as well as they used to. One option that was considered and will be taken is to go back to the original dosage of cyclophosphamide used in the first 4 whammies. That would put the dosage to almost half of what he’s gotten the last 7 cycles so hopefully that will make tolerating the number of cycles ahead a little less daunting. We’ll also go a few days longer with the anti-nausea meds and eliminate those that have lost their efficiency because they bring their own set of side effects.

Tim is also back to weekly treatments of vincristine. We are in the final push. This week his platelet count was well below the threshold and he did have some bruising so it was time for a platelet transfusion. He received 2 units of plateletpheresis. A donor is able to donate a lot more platelets via pheresis than the amount of platelets found in a regular type of donation of whole blood. This is accomplished by separating out the platelet component of the blood in a special centrifuge and then returning the rest. The donor replenishes what was harvested in about 24-48 hours and is able to donate more often which is good because platelets have a life span of just about 5 days so they always need more donors. Also, they are able to collect a larger volume of platelets without having to pool units from multiple donors and thus decrease the risk of transfusion.

Tim’s white cell count was almost negligible so he was cautioned about staying away from large crowds or people who were sick. The next day was Friday the start of spring break and he had big plans to hang with friends and have some fun. Alas it was not to be. He spiked a fever Friday afternoon and was admitted to the hospital. His blood work on admission showed that everything was down- white cell count, platelet count and red cell count. More transfusions were ordered and this time for both platelets and packed red cells. He was released Sunday and advised to lay low. He said he wasn’t planning on playing any football just maybe going bowling sometime in the next few days. Bowling was discouraged so sitting at home playing Xbox would just have to do.

His next treatment day brought another new event. His central line appeared to have some sort of blockage because they had difficulty drawing blood from it. The solution was to dissolve the clot by administering TPA, which is often used in treating heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism. That seemed to do the trick and it was onward with treatment.
By Thursday of spring break Tim was well enough to venture out of town for a short while to attend Vandal Friday at U of I for prospective fall freshmen. It happened that Michael had a band concert so the rest of the family was able to attend that though Tim stayed at the hotel to rest since he still didn’t have a whole lot of energy. His schedule was trimmed down to the essentials of visiting with the advising staff, signing up for his fall classes and getting his dorm room for the fall assigned. He was content to have family time during meals.


Autocross came on Sunday and Tim had a lot of fun with that. It didn’t take too much energy and he conserved what he had by sitting and watching from the sidelines during down time. He raced his GTI while Bob raced the TT. His best time was only .02 seconds off of Bob’s best time. Yeah!