Days 16 - 23 - The Routine Begins

Ok, I'm way behind on these postings so I'll try to bring you all up to date as quickly as possible.

Day 16 – This day went exactly as planned. Mostly uneventfully. I had blood labs drawn at 8:00; saw the Doctor at 9:00; and started chemo right around 10:00. As it turns out, my hemoglobin was fairly low (7.5) which as Dr. Chin put it is really borderline. But instead of delaying chemo in favor of a transfusion, the doc decided to go ahead with the chemo and keep me on schedule. The doctor decided to start me on a low dose of only one medication to see how well I would tolerate it. Chemo went well and I didn't get sick at all during the actual infusion and I felt pretty good afterward. It wasn't until Friday (the next day) that it hit me. I got very tired on Friday and started to feel fairly sick on Saturday. On top of that, I collapsed twice on Saturday after having climbed the stairs.

Day 19 - By Sunday I wasn't feeling any better and my lightheadedness continued. Mel called the Oncologist on call and chatted with him. They decided that I should head to the emergency room. That visit revealed that my hemoglobin had dropped even lower to 6.7. The decision was made to admit me and give me two units of blood. I was all for the transfusion but not so excited about having to stay overnight to do it. In any case, my hemoglobin level came up to 9.5 and I was released on Monday.

Day 23 – Back to the Cancer Center for another Thursday round of labs, doctor, and chemo. The blood work showed that my hemoglobin had held it's level. This is good news as it means there is no major internal bleed. The doctor decided to keep me on the same dosage of chemo. Again, the actual infusion went very well but the two days following were pretty much the same as last week. I slept through most of Friday and today I've been fairly sick most of the day. I also stood up to fast a little while ago and collapsed again. I do hope that doesn't mean my hemoglobin has dropped again. Time will tell. I get labs again first thing Monday morning and see my Kidney doctor on Monday afternoon.
I'll know then what my blood counts look like.

Interesting side note -
On Day 16, Mel took a form for the Family Medical Leave Act with her that the doctor needed to fill out. We left it with the nurse and she returned it all filled out while we were waiting for chemo. We decided to leaf through the document while we were waiting. All the questions were very neatly and succinctly answered in what was obviously the nurse's immaculate handwriting. That was until we got the last page. There at the bottom was a space for the doctor's official diagnosis and signature. This is were the doc had scrawled (in typical doctor handwriting,) “Patient has terminal stomach cancer.” Now up to this point we had been using terms like inoperable and incurable but no one had yet used the term Terminal. It's not like we didn't know that, it was just a little shocking to see in print like that.

And for those who have offered help of rides – I'm looking for a one way Monday afternoon ride from my house in Goose Creek to Mel's office downtown on Wentworth (right next to Andolini's.) I need to leave Goose Creek around 2:30 and arrive about 3:00. Mel gets out of work at that time and she'll drive me to my afternoon appointment and then home.

Be Well
Chris