Beginning of Round 3

Round 3 will be like the first two rounds. (But after this, there will be some changes to the schedule.)
1st week - overnight stay in hospital
2nd week - half day
3rd week - 6 day stay in hospital

Round 3 started Monday and we got home yesterday.  It was nice that John had had a two week break; he felt pretty good going into the hospital and coming home from it.  Coming home not sick was nice for me - I didn't have to worry about him getting sick from my driving.

We found out that chemo will not stop during radiation.  That was hard for John to hear.  He gets the side effects of both at the same time.  We will meet again with the radiation team next Monday.  I think that is the appointment where they are going to make his mask to mark all the spots they want to hit with the radiation.

Both times John has been in the hospital for fevers have been really hard on us because they haven't found any infections but we have to stay for undetermined amounts of time.  They don't let him go home until his white blood counts come back up to reasonable levels and so it's draw blood in the morning, wait for the results, if they are bad we have to stay and they won't test his blood until the next day.  And so we are stuck in that cycle until whatever day his blood count decides to recover. BUT during the first fever, John got some mouth swish that cured his mouth sores and during the second fever, he got some blood pressure pills that have really helped with the dizziness/blacking out.  So the last week and half John has been able to get around without help! That has been SO nice for both of us!

Because John has started having fevers, his doctor decided to back off the chemo a little bit.  This round, John got 90% of the dose that he had the last two rounds.  The goal is that this will prevent him from getting more fevers and continually delaying his chemo treatments.  The short delays he has had so far shouldn't negatively impact the progress that the chemo should be making.  However, if he is regularly delaying chemo then it wouldn't be as effective.  It is better to stay on schedule and get a little less chemo than it is to get the full chemo with a lot of delays.  The sarcoma nurse said that most sarcoma patients (maybe even all of them) get decreases in the dose they are given, but it is best to start out and stay really aggressive for as long as the patient's body can handle it.