Ben’s Chemo started October 30th, 2010 Gemzar and Cisplatin

I meant to write last week but got busy and didn’t get a chance. So, I am sitting with Ben right now for the second round and thought I would document the experience so far.

Of course we were both extremely anxious about starting, but it has all gone very well.

He started with the anti-nausea medication: Aloxi – 250mg and Dexameth – 10mg.
Next up was the Gemzar 2000mg then Cisplatin 50mg
Finishing with a hydration combo of Magnesium, Potassium and Manitol

The whole process from start to finish took about six hours, a bit longer then we expected but it was a lot of fluid! (Ben is a pretty big boy…about six feet and 235 lbs).

Overall, the process was better then we expected (and i do think he was glad he had his port put in).

For the week, he experienced absolutely no nausea, which was definitely good news. His worst side effect were painful hiccups the day following (that i did write about previously), that ultimately were cured with a teaspoon of sugar and haven’t come back.

He did have a little nit of fatigue a couple of days later, but nothing unusual. He was able to resume normal activities and even went to his gym through the week. So far – a huge relief for us.

So, today is his second round, they did say it may hit him a bit harder this week but we are still hoping for the best. The oncologist said all of his blood work was very good and she was thrilled with his lack of side effects.

Ben also had a PET scan this week, it had been two months since the original MRI and CAT scans so we were both quite anxious on what the PET scan showed. The doctor said the activity levels from the scan just showed the “noise” in the liver and a bit around the lymph nodes (which is where his had spread), but she said it wasn’t overly high. That was a relief to us….apparently with a PET scan they can’t measure the Liver tumor, they just look at the activity radioactively so we can’t tell the size of the tumor compared to where it was two months ago (4.5cm), but the doctor was happy with overall activity.

Given what we know about CC, I would say that so far, Ben has been extremely fortunate with his progress. No problems with his metal stent yet, first round of chemo with no side effects, and it doesn’t seem the growth has advanced too much in the past two months, so all good news in my book.

As always, thank you so much to everyone on this board…I don’t know what I would do without the information and support.

Tom