Treatment Number 1 complete

After receiving a mediport last Monday, Mom received chemo later that evening and was sent home with a 48 hour infusion pump of F5U. I told her she looked like a suicide bomber as I am convinced that bottle looks like a bomb! She was so tired and the port was painful those first 48 hours. WHen they removed “the bomb”, she was so tired and so pale that she slept in the chemo suite for 2 hours before bringing her home. I knew the next couple of days would be bad.

She was a bit nauseous which zofran tok care of. Her mouth was dry a lot which biotin rinse or spray did the trick. As the weekend approached I thought she would start to feel better, but she was still so fatigued and foggy. I brought her to the urgent care at Fox Chase and the onc and I were convinced that her billirubin was on the rise and that her blood counts were low and that she would need an external drain and a transfusion. Much to all of our surprise, her billirubin dropped from 3.5 to 2.8 and all her counts were normal! We literally cried tears of joy. The onc thinks that since the liver enzymes are high, it may take the chemo more time to metabolize. They gave her some electrolytes, and we went on our way. I see a big improvement in her morale today.

I truly hope that the drop in bilirubin is because the tumor is shrinking. Hopefully, it will drop further after round 2…