Chemo Round 2

Round 2 was so much better than round 1.  John had the IV of Vincristine on Monday afternoon, then came home and took his chemo pills and oral chemo (irinotecan & temozolomide).  He got sick but by morning he was feeling better.  He ended up going to work every day, except for Friday.  Friday he worked from home though.  John got his neulasta shot on Saturday.  Tuesday blood labs were way higher than normal (because of the neulasta). John has been going to work every day this week as well.

The oral chemo is a liquid in a syringe.  It tastes pretty nasty and made John throw up one of the days, but then he found that if he rinsed his mouth with mouthwash he could keep it down.

The pills can't be touched.  So John has to pour his two pills into a cup and take them without making skin-to-pill contact.

I'm not sure what kind of questions anyone might have at this point.  Let me know if you have any!

Hair Loss^2 + No Chemo This Week

John shaved his head Monday night.  The kids didn't seem to mind dad with a bald head, but Thomas wondered why mom never cuts her hair.  Haha! 

Chemo was supposed to be on Monday.  We were happy to be in Provo for this one.  I usually think Salt Lake isn't so bad or so far away, but after going to Provo this week, I realized how incredibly nice that was to be that much closer to home!  So we showed up in Provo, had labs drawn, waited for lab results, and then found out that John's ANC was too low for him to receive chemo!  I don't know if John was surprised at all, but I sure was!  Last week his counts were fine!  I thought for sure his counts wouldn't still be going down that far out from chemo.  Anyway, we already had dinner lined up and a babysitter, so we took advantage of the situation and John worked and I thawed the ice out of our deep freeze. 

The nurse in Provo coordinated with Dr. Wright in SLC and they said we could choose to try again Thursday or just wait until Monday.  John said he would do whatever Dr. Wright recommended, so we are waiting until Monday the 18th to start the next week of treatment.  To try to avoid this during the next round, the doctor is adding Neulasta into the treatment plan.  (When we started treatment back up, the doctor said we might do Neulasta, but for the first round she wanted to not do it and see what John's blood did on its own.)  Neulasta is a shot to the belly that helps rebuild ANC counts.