Allison Posted September 8, 2003 Share Posted September 8, 2003 Thankfully, Dad has been home from the hospital almost 2 weeks, and caring for him at home has not been as difficult as my Mom and I had expected. Sadly, since I live 2 1/2 hours away from them, I have not been there as much as I would like. After failing his Carbo/Taxotere treatments and a 3 litre pleural effusion (which they never actually did the cytology on, even though I asked, several times - grrr) they switched him to Navelbine once a week plus daily Iressa. Our experience with Navelbine could not have been more different than the last chemo which Dad sailed through. After 2 treatements, he was unable to receive a third because of low red and white cell counts, and he is SO tired (which I guess makes complete sense given the blood counts) he is probably "up" only 4-5 hours a day. We are still in flux of deciding what to do, but it may be Navelbine every other week and continued Iressa. I am not sure if I should attribute his current shortness of breath to lack of lung capacity (the BAC has taken over his entire right lung) or lack of red blood cells carrying oxygen around. It's probably some of both. Hopefully that Navelbine is killing of SOME cancer cells along with all the blood cells! Oh, and has gotten the Iressa rash, but just a mild case right and the edges of his nose. Oh! And the other good news of the day, the VNA came to do his pleurex catheter drain today, and they only got about a 1/4 teaspoon of liquid out, so it looks like the will pull the drain next week Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Wood Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 Allison, thanks for the update on your dad. It sounds like things are going in the right direction. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christymike Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 Stay strong and stay positive.. we are all here for you. I will pray for you and your family. God Bless you Christy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarbaraL Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 After failing his Carbo/Taxotere treatments and a 3 litre pleural effusion (which they never actually did the cytology on, even though I asked, several times - grrr) they switched him to Navelbine once a week plus daily Iressa. Allison! I just don't believe no one did a cytology on your dad's effusion fluid. Isn't that standard operating procedure??? Isn't that medical school 101??? It's not even like it would be a big expense to send something to the lab...there are plenty of staff on hand to do just that! I finally got my own copy of the surgeon's report from my pleurectomy and the cytology report, but no one was trying to hide it from me. I just hadn't asked for it. My onc "flagged" the pages in my file, and sent me up to the clerical staff to have it copied. I'm glad I did, because I have a fuller picture, and can provide a fuller picture to the docs giving me a second opinion in a few weeks. Best to you and yours, and *long live Warren Zevon* if only in our hearts for awhile. Barb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kzander Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 I just have one quick question.....What exactly is pleaural effusion? I'm not even sure if I'm spelling it correctly. My mom is currently on carbo/taxotere treatments .... hasn't suffered many side effects except fatigue and dehydration this weekend. Hope things continue to improve ..... you are all in my prayers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam'swifeShirley Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 pleural effusion link http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000086.htm Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kzander Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 Thanks for the link ..... It helped a lot!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimblanchard Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 kzander. My most recent pet scan showed spread to nodes in center of chest, and also to lymphnode in neck. They went in and did surgery on Thursday - did a medistinoscopy and a bronchoscopy - and found no cancer. everthing came up negative. I wonder how common false positives are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allison Posted September 9, 2003 Author Share Posted September 9, 2003 If *I* were a doctor I would have done the cytology, but they looked at it and said "consistent with recurrent disease". Which may be true, but then again we don't know, cause NO CYTOLOGY! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marta Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 Allison. Just saw that you are in Boston...I was wondering where your dad was being treated besides at MSKCC... I work at Dana Farber/Brigham and Women's... Praying for you and your family, Laura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allison Posted September 9, 2003 Author Share Posted September 9, 2003 Actually, I am in Boston - they are in Connecticut being treated through Yale/New Haven and St. Raphael's hospitals. I just spend a lot of time driving from here to there to be a part of his treatment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.