The Waiting Game - April 23, 2010

We get to practice waiting quite a bit, but no matter how much we practice, I'm still not very good at it.

Pete had his second infusion Wednesday afternoon. Before they started it we went in and spoke with Dr. W who was very pleased to find out that the lump Pete had found in his arm pit is almost gone. He was also pleased that Pete did not have any notable adverse effects following the first infusion 3 weeks ago. He gave Pete a script for the CT scan which will be scheduled for Thursday or Friday of next week. That will give the radiologist sufficient time to complete the report and have it ready for Dr. K (MSKCC) when we go to get the results from her on Tuesday, May 4.

Dr. W said to hold off on increasing the Sirolimus to twice a day until after we get the results.

The infusion lasted about 3 hrs, finishing up sometime after 5 PM. The amount of this particular chemo is calculated based on surface area. Since Pete is about 6' 4" and a bit over 200#s, he has quite a bit of surface area. When they first hooked him up they were trying to decide whether to give it all in one day or split it into 2 doses which would mean he would have to come back the next day to finish up. The doctor decided to have him do it in one sitting, which was fine with Pete.

When we were heading out to the car Pete said his stomach was feeling a bit odd, but he said it wasn't really nausea, and went to visit his father after dinner. He felt well enough on Thursday to do some errands during the afternoon, and I gave him his Nulasta shot after dinner (he's supposed to get it about 24 hrs after the chemo is administered).

He didn't sleep very well last night and again wasn't feeling great this morning, but he did go in to work. I had a hunch that he might not make a full day and he didn't, coming back home early in the afternoon. Hopefully he'll have a more restful night tonight.

So we're back to waiting. Waiting while the chemo attacks the cancer cells. Waiting while it halts and, even better, reduces the tumors. Waiting for the CT scan. Waiting to get the results of the CT scan. We do a lot of waiting, but it never gets any easier.