Duke Trip Number Two
We’re leaving Sunday for our second Duke trip for treatment. Mom is recovering from her last cycle beautifully and has a “halfway point” PET Scan on Thursday. Mike got a blood transfusion today. Read on for the details.
First, Mom’s Progress
During her cycle last week, Mom was encouraged by the oncology staff that her tumor markers are responding quite favorably to the treatments and they’re optimistic that her upcoming PET scan will confirm the positive bloodwork. As usual, she had quite a bit of chemo-induced brain fog when she came home from the hospital on Monday, but it’s starting to shake loose. She also always has a good deal of water retention in her lower extremities, but that slowly reducing. She’s such an inspiration!
She had a fall on her tailbone during cycle number 3, which earned her the support of a walker. She was checked out thoroughly and everything was okay. It mostly bruised her bum—and her pride. She takes some Tylenol every now and then if the pain is too bad. She’s a tough one!
Of course, she wasn’t interested in using the walker at first, but after she saw how steady and quick she could move around with it, she embraced the walker life and just zooms around with that thing like a pro! She does her physical therapy every day and refuses to let cancer win. She’s so cute walking in her jammies and turban with that walker like a speed demon!
Upcoming Duke Trip
I called this Duke Trip Number Two despite the fact that we’ve been down there a couple of times already because it’s the second time Mike is actually receiving treatment while we’re there. He did fairly well with his first round of the GemOx regimen. Side effects were milder than his original BEP regimen, even though the actual chemotherapy drugs are stronger. Plus, there has been no gut inflammation this time. It seems the fecal matter transplant he received to treat his recurrent c. diff. infections has improved his gut in other ways as well. That’s a direct answer to prayer!
However, the GemOx regimen hits blood counts quite a bit harder than the BEP regimen. Mike’s red blood cells and platelets have been pretty low throughout the cycle. He received a blood transfusion today, but the platelets aren’t low enough to treat. When Mike first started chemotherapy locally, the education nurse explained to us that platelets are like the “policeman” of the blood. They only go up when they’re ready and they are the thing that determines whether your body is ready for more treatment or not. Please pray that his blood counts have recovered enough to receive his treatments on schedule without further delays.
We will leave on Sunday and be gone for ten days so Mike can receive his second round of GemOx. He will get a CT scan after this round to determine his response and plan how many more rounds of this regimen he will need before he’s ready to step into the transplant process. His doctor has already mentioned that he thinks Mike will need more than two, but we won’t know for sure until we see the scans. It’s our prayer that he will only need two cycles of GemOx, but we ultimately want what’s best for Mike’s health.
Updated Prayer List
To summarize, here’s how you can be praying for us over the next few weeks:
Mom’s PET scan on Thursday, November 7th
Mom to continue to recover from Cycle 4 strong
Safe travels for us to and from Duke
Mike’s blood counts to recover enough to receive his next cycle on schedule
Continued minimal side effects to the GemOx regimen
Excellent response to GemOx for Mike so that he needs no more than two cycles
Rest for all of us in the midst of chaos
For the boys to grow in their relationships with Christ and each other during this time as they learn to be a support for one another
For the boys to be protected from fear, depression, and loneliness as we travel back and forth and for us to know how to build relationships with them despite the distance
