The Big C

We went to the oncologist, Dr. G, for the first time on Wednesday, August 12. Dr. G told us that Tim has large diffuse b cell lymphoma, which has a 65-70% cure rate. He said the percentage of people who do have success with the treatment are completely free of the disease, that it isn't likely to reoccur when we beat it. Tim has chemotherapy once every three weeks for the next 18 weeks and we are going to see how he's responding from there to determine if any other treatment is necessary. So with any luck, he'll be cancer free sometime in January.

His treatments began the following day, Thursday, August 13. Though this type of cancer is very treatable, it is also very aggressive and they started as soon as possible. His usual treatment will be R-CHOP, which is an acronym for 5 different kinds of medicine. The R and the P are Rotuxin and Prednisone. He started the Prednisone, which comes in the pill form for T, on Thursday morning. He takes four of the pills in the morning and the worst side effects are that they make him feel a little jittery, which is why they told him to take them in the morning.

Friday was the first time for the Rotuxin, which is distributed by IV, and Tim sat in a chair for 4.5 hours getting the medicine. Evanston hospital has wireless internet, so I was and will be in the future able to work from his bedside, which is clearly awesome. The nurse, Colleen, was very cheerful and kept popping in to his room to say that he was doing great. While some patients have adverse reactions that slow down the treatment, T was fine and he got through with the IV sooner than expected for his first time. He was a little loopy from the Benadryl that they gave him and thus thoroughly enjoyed both The Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008 version) and Get Smart . There was a minor rant somewhere in there about how the first movie undermines a child's education by misrepresenting scientific fact, but I tuned that out after about the first 45 seconds. Today, he's feeling fine.

C, H, and O from R-CHOP are all chemotherapy drugs, which he begins on Monday. They only take about 1/2 hour. In the future they'll do it at the same time as the Rotuxin, but this time the appointments were split.

Tim may lose his hair, including possibly his eyebrows and eyelashes. So if next time you see him he looks like Sean Patrick Flanery from Powder, don't be surprised! He is already breathing a little bit better and the doctor said he should feel the positive effects of the chemo by Tuesday or Wednesday. We have a bumpy road ahead, but we're geared for the fight and ready to go!