It turns out the nurse yesterday neglected to mention that for my first chemotherapy cycle I would be admitted to the hospital for a few days. Mainly this is because the drugs (CHOP-R for those who are dying to do some research) attacks and breaks down the tumor so fast they need to monitor me closely to see how I respond. I'm in a room right now in the Accelerated Access Unit which is where you go to get in the door until they can find a bed in the right unit (D8 - Medical/Surgical Oncology for my UCD friends). I'll be getting an abdominal CT probably tonight so they can see the remaining lymph nodes that haven't already been imaged to confirm there are no other tumors. Tomorrow morning they will do a bone marrow biopsy to make sure it hasn't spread there either and then put in a central line portacath which will be how the deliver the chemotherapy. After that they will start the chemo which will take quite a while to infuse as they need to go slowly. Then it will be a lot of blood and other body fluid tests to watch how I'm reacting. I'm not sure at this point how long I'll be here as that will depend on what the tests show. The good news is that my oncologist (Dr. Lara) suspects I will respond well given my age and general health (other than the cancer, of course) and may be able to go home in 2 days (Saturday?). And as long as I do respond well all further treatments (there will be 7 more, 1 every 3 weeks) will be outpatient at the Cancer Center.
I'm bummed because Dr. Lara said a trip to the east coast, even for a few days, was out of the question right now. He wants me to be close by between the first and second cycles in case of any complications. For all of the Houses and Littels reading this, I'm really going to miss seeing everyone. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can get in a trip around the holidays.
Bill also did the math and discovered that treatment #5 will fall during my planned trip to Hawaii in November to see my mom's chorus compete in the Sweet Adeline's International Competition. I had planned to take Trent and he is soooo excited so I told Dr. Lara that he would have to break the bad news. However, we may be able to move the treatments somewhat so I'm not willing to entirely rule out making the trip.
Anyhow, travel can always wait. The important thing now is to get this party started and I am definitely ready to go!
Love to all!
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For anyone who isn't quite up on all the chemo "lingo" (and why Abbey's treatment regimen is an acronym) this site
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Combinationregimen/R-CHOPCHOP
explains the difference between R-CHOP and CHOP regimens for NHL and also what the different components of the chemo cocktail do specifically.
Go Abbey! I hope Bill brought you good movies! :)
It seems to us that if you can't go to the East Coast, you should be able to come up the West Coast to Crater Lake! Hope to see you all there in late-September.
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