Sorry I did not post yesterday but it was a busy day.

Fred received his Neulasta injection yesterday.  Neulasta is prescribed to reduce the risk of infection in patients receiving strong chemotherapy that decreases the number of infection fighting white blood cells.

We had the 3 hour drive home and for someone who is feeling nauseous, isn't always fun, but Fred did well.

We are taking his temperature to make sure he does not spike a fever of 100.4, cause that means a call to Mayo.  The highest he has gotten is 100.2, but thankfully his temperature went down.

One of the things I hate the most is the hallucinations Fred gets from the chemotherapy.  He thinks something is always on fire and it takes a lot to calm him and reassure him that everything is all right.

Let us hope things go smoothly and we DO NOT have to go back to Mayo until our next scheduled appointment on February 18th.

Day 3 of Round 1 done.  Fred in typical fashion is sleeping, which is good cause otherwise he just babbles.  Blood pressure was good again today after his chemo.  He got the IV taken out today (which has been in since Tuesday) and he is so happy about that. 

We are going to discuss with the doctor about putting in a port since they could not find a good vein in his arm to put the IV and had to put it in his hand, which really hurt having it in for 3 days.

Tomorrow is the injection and we can head home.

So far this week has gone quite well.  He did experience some nausea yesterday afternoon, but thank God for Zofran pills.  One of those and he did not complain anymore.

I have noticed a difference in his behavior post chemo and that is mainly attributed to his not getting the pre-chemo medicine Benadryl.  Benadryl makes him totally loopy.  Let's hope they continue can continue not giving him this.

Day 2 of Round 1 is done.  Everything went well today.  Fred's blood pressure was much better today following his chemo of Zofran, Fludarabine and Cytoxin.  Blood pressure 92/61.  Fred is resting now.  One side effect of the Zofran (nausea medicine) is drowsiness so he does sleep a lot, but sleep is good right? 

January 22, 2013

Well day 1 of Round 1 has been completed.  Today was Fludarabine and Cytoxan.  We got a slow start this morning because Fred's platelets were low.  Platelets were 92,000 (normal 150,000-450,000), so we had to wait to have the doctor sign off to go ahead with the chemo today. 

After chemo his blood pressure was extremely low 66/41, so they pushed saline through his IV for a while which brought it up to 90/58.  He is resting now and so far so good.

January 13, 2013

Since you have accessed this blog you obviously have heard that my Leukemia has returned.  This was not unexpected and pretty much in line with the time table of 3-5 years the Medical Team at Mayo told me to expect.  So while I am thankful for the time I was disease free, I have to admit another couple of years would have been nice.

The most recent tests had the White Blood Cells at 28 (normal is in the 4-10 range) and there are several lymph nodes that have grown to 2 -3 times the normal size.

The plan is to start treatment the week of 1/21. The treatments will be for four days, with a Neulasta injection on day 5. The treatments will be a minimum of 6 times with 3 weeks off between treatments.

The drugs will be the same as last time, a cocktail of Flurdara, Cytoxan and Rituxan (FCR). Based on what I've learned about 90% of the people who reacted favorably to this cocktail initially, will have a favorable reaction the second time around. So let's hope I'm in that 90% group.

Looking back, I'm so very thankful for the last couple of years of remission. During this time I've been blessed with 2 beautiful grandchildren. Now I need to get by this newest obstacle so with Carol's help we can continue to spoil the heck out of them.

Carol will be updating the website as we tackle this next stage of this journey.