Bill Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 How is chemo usually resumed when it is temporarily suspended ? For instance, my wife is on a 28-day cycle of Gemzar / carboplatin. That is, two weeks ( Mondays ) of chemo followed by ~ 2 weeks off. She received week 1 chemo on Monday 9/13. Week 2 chemo scheduled for next Monday ( 9/20 ) has been canceled due to the drug reaction that I mentioned. How would the oncologist typically adjust the timing, schedule, dosing, whatever in order to resume the chemo and get it back on track ? Thanks much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chloesmom Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 Don't know exactly how they'll do it, but they will work it out. This happens all the time, particularly in the case of low blood counts. I was supposed to have gemzar/cisplatin week 1, week 2 and 3 gemzar only, and then a week off. This was supposed to go three cycles. After week 1 being fine and week 2 being fine, week 3 I went in and they wouldn't give me chemo because my counts were too low. Was sent home with a shot of arnesp and told to come in the following week. No big deal, we just moved on from there. As it all turned out, I had to have a couple of weeks of gemzar tacked on at the end of it all to get it all in. Don't worry about it--they will figure it all out. They do this all the time. We worked around my job schedule too, as I was going to be out of town for a week during my chemo treatments. They understand that people have other things going on while they are in treatment. Cindy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Wood Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 My wife's treatment of chemo and radiation were interrupted after about a month's treatment because she got a staph infection that went systemic. It took her another month to recover and the onc started right where the protocol left off on both chemo and radiation. On the chemo, he debated whether to count the chemo earlier, and the scans done convinced him it had "counted" in the treatment, and he did not add aidditional treatments. I'm sure it depends on the person, the treatment and the circumstances. Don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJ Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 hi bill, my mom's chemo regime (carbo/taxol) was interrupted several times due to fevers (she was admitted into the hospital for two weeks at one point). as soon as she was feeling better (and the blood tests were fine), her onco continued on with the treatment as if there was no interruption. i would definitely talk to your wife's onco though to find out about her specific case. i'm sure he could clarify your question. i hope that your wife feels better really soon. i know that a delay in treatment can cause a lot of anxiety and frustration. hang in there. God bless, mj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJAS Posted September 20, 2004 Share Posted September 20, 2004 Steve had treatments interrupted several times during both courses of chemo due to plummeting platelet counts. The onc. always waited until his blood reached an acceptable level then started again with the 28 day count starting from that day. 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.