1st Chemo Treatment

Well, we made it through the first chemo session. We got to Hampshire Hemotology Oncology (HHO for short) at 7:45 am where they took some blood and then we waited an hour (so they could run the blood tests).

Met with Dr. Bowers who went over the treatment plan, checked Ed and also told us that they found a lump outside Ed's esophagus. However, we're not doing anything about that right now because to bioposy that right now would be traumatic for his body. They are quite sure it's related and since we're doing the chemo, waiting to look at that won't hurt anything. I was impressed with the fact that it was Dr. Bowers and his "team" that were reviewing Ed's scans last Thursday and identified and discussed this lump.

We asked to see the CT scan and Dr. Bowers showed us the tumors on Ed's liver--quite a number of them and some of them are a good size (1-2" in size). Seeing the CT scan was pretty cool--seeing what we were facing explained why Ed's liver is so oversized. As far as if/when we can tell if the chemo is shrinking the tumors, Dr. Bowers said he will be able to easily tell just by an external exam because the liver is so oversized right now (and we all though Ed just had a beer belly!!).

We then went into the "chemo suite" and Ed got his pick of chairs since he was the first one there. The folks here are great and the oncology nurse we love. They had a stocked frig, snacks, blankets, DVDs, music, etc., whatever you need. They also have a "therapy dog" that happens to be Dr Bowers dog. A great, small dog that walks around quietly greeting the patients.
So we started ("we"...like Dan and I did anything!) with a shot of benadryl followed by an iv of a pre-med (Aloxi) to help with nausea. Next was an IV with the Irinotecan followed by an iv of Avastin.

It all was pretty uneventful...in fact, being there was quite boring! Told Ed we'd have to come up with something if we're doing this every 2 weeks--reading, cards, knitting!! Lol
We left there at 12:30 and stopped for lunch and then went to Best Buy and CVS. Needed to get a prescription for nausea (in case Ed has that side effect), immodium a-d (diarrhea is a possible side effect of the Avastin) and then B6 (for the Xeloda that Ed needs to start taking tomorrow) and vitamin C to help his body absorb the iron pills he's taking!

Tomorrow morning he begins the Xeloda regimen--4 pills in the morning w/breakfast and 4 pills at nite with dinner for 7 days. Then 7 days off and repeat. So every 2 weeks we've got the two IVs and the pills with one week off in between.

This Friday we have a meeting with a surgeon to (1) have the surgeon get to know Ed (because if we can shrink these darn tumors surgery in the future is possible) and (2) schedule implanting a port. Amazing how common a port is...of the 5 other folks who came into the "chemo suite" while we were there, all but 1 had the port. I personally never knew about this but now I do and one of the first guys we met in the "chemo suite" offered to show us his port (well, Dr Bowers asked if he would). And this guy highly recommended his surgeon who is the same surgeon we're seeing Friday. The idea of the port though is to get the ivs through the port vs your veins because after a couple treatments of chemo, your veins take a beating and can collapse.

His next chemo treatment will be in 2 weeks. It's not scheduled yet, but they'll be calling to get us scheduled. Good news is they have wifi there so I'll love that (Dan was on his laptop most of the time we were there).

So the beat goes on...right now everything seems "normal", but we're prepared for the onset of possible side effects (got our pile of pills!).

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Keep them coming!