Chemo Tuesday

Back again for round two...Jon had a mostly good week last go around. He did have a "chemo crash" on Friday where he slept most of the day but did not experience any additional side effects. Today he asked that his steroid (premeds) be slightly reduced to avoid the sleepless night after chemo which makes him even more tired when the steroids wear off. He will receive Doxil every other week so today is just Taxol and Posphitamide. He still gets to drink the "sweat tasting" Mesna tonight but says its actually not as bad as everyone says it is. His white count, red count and platelets have all fallen a little so he's uping all his supplements this week. We are currently awaiting our 11:30 appointment with Dr. Reilly, the naturopath, to review the supplement program for this regime.

Interestingly enough the doctors here at SCTWC have finally discovered a tumor marker that they can use to follow Jon's treatment. It's called AFP (alpha feto protein). It is typically elevated in liver cancer. Normal is 7, Jon was 27 at the end of his last chemo session, but elevated to 150 last week. That is not any cause for concern because the doctors would expect to see an elevation after a month off. Dr. Chan also says he has seen AFPs in the thousands. I am somewhat relieved because I like to have some objective measurement to follow the efficacy of treament more closely than a PET scan every 12-14 weeks. That way we can tell if his current regime is effective and switch gears earlier if need be. Jon says he'd rather just ignore all the "scientific mumbo jumobo" and go by how he feels.

Jon, Levi and Kelsey all leave for Reno on Thursday morning for Safari Club International, a trade show for big game hunters. All three are excited about the trip and I'm looking forward for a few quite days to myself.

Have any of you seen the movie "Bucket List?" Jon's definitely got a little of the Jack Nicholson thing goin on :)