New news

We heard from the nurse today about the results of the bone marrow biopsy and Tim's marrow has been taken over by the lymphoma. This means the cancer is more aggressive than the doctor had initially thought and it completely changes the treatment for T. To borrow from Vonnegut, so it goes.

The chemo treatment will still occur in one out of every three weeks, but instead of going in for a few hours during one day of chemo week, he'll be at the hospital every day. Generally it will be on Monday through Friday, but for the first treatment, we'll be going Tuesday through Saturday (Labor Day threw us off schedule). T is going to have a PICC line inserted into his arm on the first day of the new treatment. This will stay in throughout the regimen, hopefully until November or December. On the first chemo day of the week, he will then get two bags attached to the PICC line, each with a pump. One of the bags will have two types of chemo in it and that will stay in place through the entire week. The other bag will have another type of chemo in it and will need to be changed every 24 hours by the staff at our hospital. This entire process will be done with him as an outpatient, so while he does need to be at the hospital daily, he will not need to stay over. On the final day, Tim will have both bags removed and will have a fourth type of chemo that will only take about an hour to run. Then we're footloose and fancy-free for four days!

In each of the two weeks between chemotherapy, Tim will need bi-weekly blood or platelet transfusions. The number may go up or down, depending on how he responds, and we will be doing this on Tuesday and Friday. The transfusions will require 6-8 hours in the hospital and they will use blood banks as sources. I was concerned about needing donations from relatives for the platelet transfusions, but apparently as long as we all visit our Red Crosses like the upstanding citizens we are, he'll have access to plenty of the necessary fluids. My ignorance of the transfusion process reared her ugly head with that concern.

This almost feels like starting over. There is good news in all of this, though. We are not sure yet, but they may have to do fewer of these treatments than he would have had for the R-CHOP (original regimen), so he could be done earlier than December, but we are not getting our hopes spectacularly high. I believe the number of treatments depends on how he responds over time, something we need to clear up with the doctor before getting excited. More good news is that Dr. G is confident, in his words, that this regimen will rid T's body of the lymphoma. We have an appointment to get more information next Friday and we'll get started with the new chemo on the day after Labor Day.

So every week in the near future, Timmeh (and I when I can) will be in the hospital for at least two days. We are trying to figure out how we will schedule all of these appointments while I work full time, have class two nights, and am expected to observe a classroom for two days of the week this semester and Tim works part time and has class two nights per week. Luckily, we have family 'relative'ly close in proximity and some wonderful friends who have offered to run carpool for T when we need them. Plus, my amazing boss and lovely coworkers have been nothing but supportive of us and have offered more understanding than I could have forseen. Our cup overfloweth.

"This guy!"

Tim v. Chemo - round 1

It is amazing to me how quickly new experiences can become normal. We went in to the andrology laboratory today and then to T's first round of chemotherapy. Two hospitals in one day, ew. Thankfully Tim is feeling well tonight, watching his beloved Cubs likely lose another one. He has so far not experienced any nausea or pain, just a general feeling of tiredness. He decided after chemo that it was imperative that he have a chocolate cake shake from Portillo's, so he was able to eat just after the treatment. He also had some garden-fresh tomatoes (Thanks, Mommala!), an avocado-tuna salad and some bean and kale soup. No worries, moms, I'm making him eat his superfoods!

Chemotherapy was a lot different than the Rotuxin treatment. He was sitting up in a chair fully dressed this time instead of in a bed in jammies. The nurse put on a full gown, face mask and gloves and pushed two enormous syringes of bright red fluid through Tim's IV. There were also two bags of fluids hung, plus some saline. The whole experience took about two hours, but that included picking up his medicine and the explanation of what we should expect for side effects. Next time should be shorter for the chemo, though a longer stay because it's at the same time as the Rotuxin.

The social worker also came in today to talk to us for the first time. As anyone who has met Tim already knows, he's not exactly one who tends to open up, but he is one of the most amiable people I know. It was slightly amusing to hear him trying to balance politeness and reservedness while talking to the social worker about what he's going through. She might have more success with getting him to open up without me there, so next time I'll leave the room when she arrives.

That was our day and it was a long one. Only five more chemo treatments to go, so that's sending us off to bed with smiles on our faces!