Another day at MD Anderson

8/10/09
Marc had his second round of IV chemotherapy today at MD Anderson. We had to be there early to have lab drawn and the chemo wasn't scheduled until 3:30 this afternoon. All went well until about an hour after we checked in for the chemo. The clerk came out and told us that Marc would have to come back tomorrow for the chemo because it had only been 13 days since his last dose. I told her that I wanted the Dr. called because if his blood work came back OK there was no reason to wait another day. She paged our oncologist's nurse. When she called back I told her the same thing, that I saw no reason that Marc could not have the chemo today; especially since she had told me his labs were entirely normal. She said that the oncologist and is nurse practitioner were both on vacation and she would have to contact the covering physician. About an hour later the nurse called me back stating that the covering physician agreed that it was OK to have the chemotherapy. Everything just seems like such an ordeal, nothing is simple.

When we got back to the treatment room, Marc tried to lie down on the bed (actually a modified cot). His feet hung at least a foot over the end of the bed! When he elevated the head of the bed, it bent at mid chest position instead of at the waist. He just couldn't handle it as any position made his abdominal discomfort worse and there was no way to get comfortable. While trying to change positions he pulled out the IV and it had to be restarted. Fortunately they got it in. I finally got him up in the chair and he was more comfortable. Of course being in such pain, his blood pressure rose. As elevated BP is normal with the Avastin, the nurse was hesitant to continue the infusion. I had brought extra BP medication with us as the same thing happened the last time, and gave Marc the medication. The nurse called our oncologist who told her to go ahead and complete the infusion, that I knew what to do and it would be OK. So the infusion continued and went well until about 15 minutes before it was to be complete. Marc started having more abdominal pain and insisted walking would help. So with the nurses blessing we walked. His BP was still high but Marc was doing OK so we completed the infusion. We got home had a late dinner and now Marc is resting now and we are hoping that the future chemo treatments are less eventful.

8/11/09
Marc had a little better night last night and then a dentist appointment this am. Of course his BP was up again after he sat there waiting on them to start his cleaning (they checked it after performing all of the X-rays). I again gave him some BP med and he rested while I got my teeth cleaned. By the time I was done and they got ready to start on Marc again, he was so uncomfortable that we had to reschedule the cleaning. We're home again now and he is resting. I am going to check his BP again soon and hopefully it will have gone down.

We are scheduled to go back to MD Anderson for his pre-placement consult for the portacath on 8/21. We still don't know when they will do the insertion. They have added anesthesia consults to the appointment lists so I suppose they will have to coordinate the insertion between anesthesia and surgery. Again, can't anything be simple anymore???

The care we get at MD Anderson is wonderful and we are very appreciative that we have the means to afford his treatment there. Had we stayed with the original oncologist, Marc would have been on the standard treatment with less chance for survival. This way we feel we have the best chance to "Beat the Beast".

Thanks to all who have given us the support and prayers, they are appreciated beyond words. I will try to post again next week.