End of Cycle 2 1/10/14

We are officially done with two months of chemo treatments or two cycles are now completed with four more left to go. Like I have previously said, each cycle consists of two chemo treatments and they can come with requisite doctor appointments for additional tests. Patti now has four treatments done with, with a further eight left before she is done.

Besides chemo, Patti saw fit to give me the gift of Bronchitis, I am not really used to such generosity and was reluctant to thank her for it. Hopefully one day I can return the favor, obviously, when she's cured of cancer of course.

This is exactly what the U of M tunnels look like..
except their tunnels have less sadness and more
modern engineering.

Below the various clinics and hospitals there's a tunnel system. We take it from the parking garage on Delaware street to the Masonic Cancer Clinic every time we go to her treatments. Within these interconnecting hallways there are classrooms, amphitheaters, Diehl Hall which is a large library, and an underground cafe of sorts. The last few times we have had breakfast there and while it's not 5 star; more like what you'd find in a school cafeteria, it is a nice way to relax and people watch before serious things happen.

Before every chemo session Patti has her blood tested. While I can not name everything you can test in your blood, the main thing is, is that everything has it's normal levels and then there are the minimum levels that you can be at. The reason why there are minimums is that the chemo drugs (ABVD), like mentioned in previous posts, break certain elements of you down while they treat cancer. Think of it as military boot camp, ABVD breaks you down while building you back up to a happy, healthy individual or patient. When you go below the minimums it can become unsafe to proceed with treatment.

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that roams around in your blood stream. The minimum level is between 1.3-3.6. The test is based on the percentage of Neutrophils present per liter of blood. Patti's level was .3, well below the minimum needed to go forward on the chemo.

Bring on the WAITING!!! We sat in a small, very over heated room, while our RN (Natalie) for the day was checking with Dr. Barachova (our main doctor) to see what the plan was. Dr. Barachova wanted us to proceed because she wanted us on a strict every 14 day program. Natalie wasn't sure that we should, there are protocols where lead nurse can override the main doctor's wishes so she checked with Nurse Deb Herzan who is in charge of the program Patti's in. Deb said we could proceed as well as long as Patti got medicine to bring up her numbers and keep her healthy. In the end, it's all about keeping Patti healthy.

To keep her healthy throughout the next two weeks Patti got three more medications on top of the other three she normally takes:

Neupogen (Filgrastim): Decreases the risk of infection for patients with cancer who are going through chemotherapy among other things.

We got two prefilled needles that I happily got to inject on Saturday and Sunday evening. Patti isn't overly fond of needles so I learned quickly that off color humor right before sticking a sharp pointy thing is not welcome. The injections were to help bring her neutrophil levels up above minimums.

Levaquin (Levofloxacin): Treats infections in patients. Interesting note: It says it's used to treat anthrax and the plague, I hope there isn't something the doctors aren't telling us.

With all the other drugs she is on and some other complications with her numbers they had to described what they called a 'light antibiotic' to help boost Patti's immune system because her numbers were so low to start before this chemo treatment.

Valtrex (Valacyclovir): Treatment of cold sores.

Apparently cold sores are a big deal like any infection and Patti has one.


That was Friday; the rest of the weekend saw her staying in doors. With counts so low Patti wasn't supposed to be around public places and people where she could get sick. Both Saturday and Sunday I injected her with a Neupogen filled needle near her navel which she LOOOVED! After two days cooped up in the house, both Aiden and Patti had a touch of cabin fever.

For those not mathematically initiated
this is what a parabola looks like....

Monday morning they cracked the seal on the door and reentered the world. Aiden went to preschool and Patti and I went to a follow up visit downtown. Natalie was back and so was Deb (we hadn't seen her since before Thanksgiving) and they went over the blood test results which Patti had gotten minutes before. Everything was raised and the all important Neutrophil count went from .3 to 13.1. Needless to say that was well above what she needed to be and proved the shots worked. We were warned that her counts would level out as the week progressed and by next weekend she would feel the effects of the chemo more so than she was then. Basically her counts would do a parabola where they were high then because of the medication, they would dip to normal post-chemo levels and then start sliding back up the closer she got to her next treatment.

From all of this I did a timeline (if her chemo stays on Friday which it should) of all the chemo dates and the last one will be 4 days before her birthday on 4/25. There will be the requisite post check ups and tests much like the weeks leading up to chemo to make sure Patti is in remission and then after that it's 5 years of hoping and praying until they give us the "Cured" label.

Two Cycles down, 4 to go. 8 treatments left and 4 months of fun with hospitals, nurses and doctors. So far Patti has been a real trooper and I think is weathering it well. Out of the 4 treatments we've only had 1 week where she got super low and out of it. I think if we only had 2 weeks out of the next four months of strong side effects, Patti would take it in an instant. For me I can't wait until this is all over with

Thank you all!