Had a phone call with the Oncologist today to discuss the results from Saturday's CT scan. No significant change in the spots on the lung. No change at all for "most of it," although a slight increase for a couple spots of no more than 1mm. Which led the Oncologist to wonder if there wouldn't have been improvement overall if Biff hadn't had to miss the next two planned treatments (being in the hospital recovering from the severe, toxic side effects from the first one 😡).
So, the Oncologist strongly advocated for doing another round of chemo, which will give the best support to the immuno therapy going forward, hopefully stopping any growth, possibly reducing the size of the spots, etc.
Along with the lived experience of Biff's prior horrible reaction, the PHASER Program PGx test (gene test) that was done while Biff was in the hospital also gives the Oncologist more information to inform best treatment going forward. As I mentioned in a previous post, the test results show Biff has an "intermediate metabolism" - which I now understand is specifically regarding his "enzyme metabolism."
Regarding the 4-day pump chemo treatment, Fluorouracil, his enzyme metabolism indicates he should not receive a dosage larger than 500 (I forget what the measurement terminology was he used, only having noted the numbers). The dosage he was given back on May 15 was 800. The Oncologist says he wants to do a dosage of 300 next time, giving Biff the best change of not having severe side effects but still, hopefully, an effective treatment. He will also reduce the dosage for the companion chemo, Carboplatin, by 20%.
Based on scheduling needs, Biff will go in for the next treatment on Monday, July 24th, again wearing the pump for 4 days, returning Friday, July 28th, to remove the pump. And we're scheduled to see the Oncologist the following Thursday, August 3rd, to see how he's doing.
Of course, in advance of that, aside from other appointments, Neurology wants another CT scan of his head to check the issues with brain bleed from the previous falls before another chemo treatment, which I'll be calling tomorrow to schedule. And he'll need to go in the Friday before, July 21st, for pre-chemo bloodwork.
We asked about proactive measures we might be able to take to reduce potential side effects, something we were able to do for the radiation treatment, but the Oncologist advises there are no such options in this situation. He did say that Biff's mouth is more healed now than it was when he had the May 15th treatment, which should help to minimize the potential for another severe case of mucositis.
Presumably, if all goes well with the next treatment, there will be two more rounds after that (three weeks after the last treatment for each would be the plan - although on this schedule, that would mean the third treatment would fall on Labor Day - and since, with the pump thing, he needs to start on Monday so the pump can be removed the following Friday, that could very well mean they'd push that out another week). We expect to find out about going forward when we see the Oncologist on August 4th for the next follow up.
Biff is pretty nervous about having to do chemo again, very worried about the potential side effects. He definitely doesn't want to end up in the hospital again. (I say that like I'm not crazy worried myself... 😨) So please send out those positive vibes, prayers, best wishes and all that, wishing him a much easier time this go round. We love you all for the ongoing support.
On a different note, he had a great time doing his animation voice acting job today (it was today, not yesterday as it turned out - I had it wrong in my calendar, but Biff remembered it as Tuesday, so I double-checked before we turned up a day early!!). The people were lovely, as always, and he truly enjoyed working again. And he felt good about the work he did, too! His voice held up beautifully.
They also had a very pleasant lounge where I was able to work on a photo collage on my laptop that I'm hoping I can bring to a memorial this coming Saturday. Found out a few days ago that a lovely man I worked with back in 2010/2011 passed away in May. He was basically my age, in fact a few months younger. Mind blowing. Heartbreaking. And yet it has been a little bit wonderful going through the pictures from back then, remembering a project that I worked so hard on, with so many cool and creative and hard-working people. A very special time. Tough way to be reminded of it, but I am still somehow grateful. Is that weird?
In the meantime, I am waiting to hear back from a handyman to come to the house to see the work needed in the laundry room, and I'm fully expecting to hire him and move forward on that as soon as possible. In fact, I'm going to add replacing the back door to our garage, since I discovered this a couple days ago:
The new yard service came yesterday, and our yard continues to look so nice and tidy. Not attractive but at least not derelict. I'm very close to contacting 1800gotjunk to come remove a bunch of garbage in the backyard that we'd expected (and paid) to remove back in February (yeah, we were pretty screwed by that "service" - live and learn, sometimes over and over and over. LOL). But getting the laundry room fixed and new machines installed is top priority for the moment (other than maintaining work recently done inside and out)!
I have arranged for a cleaning service to start next week, coming in for a couple hours every two weeks, at least for a while. Still have some deeper cleaning projects that need to be done, aside from general maintenance. Hopefully we'll get to a point where we can cut the regular service down to an hour every couple of weeks or maybe a couple hours once a month... We'll see how it goes. I just can't let it get behind, with dirt and mess building back up while I continue work on the bigger "purge and reorganize" project, you know? Gotta keep this place a healthier oasis in support of Biff's health! (And my sanity?)
Thus, the long and winding road takes another turn. And we keep on keeping on. 💖
No comments:
Post a Comment