We had a fun filled day at the hospital. It started out with mom getting a chest CT to finish up the staging of the cancer. Right after that she got an echo of her heart because one of the chemo drugs is cardiotoxic (can damage the heart). Then because they were so efficient and we got done early we had a few hours to kill until the appointment at the oncologist office where we were educated on the game plan.
We are waiting on the results from the tests she had today as well as arrival of the drugs that were ordered and will be shipped, ironically, from Florida. If everything happens quickly she will have her first treatment on Friday. Being realistic, she probably won't start chemo until next Wednesday or Thursday (They don't so chemo Mondays and Tuesdays)
The chemo treatment plan is as follows:
- Epirubicin (Day 1, IV into the port)
- Oxaliplatin (Day 1, IV into the port, this is a 2 hour infusion)
- Capecitabine (Xeloda) (Day 1 through 21, this is an oral medication)
Each cycle is 21 days long. She will have 3 cycles and then they will restage the cancer before doing surgery. Most likely she will have another 3 cycles after she heals from surgery. The nice thing about this protocol is the majority of it is an oral medication so she will only have to go in for the IV drugs once every 21 days. Obviously this is assuming there are no major negative side effects and doesn't count the follow-ups with the doctor and other tests which she will be getting throughout.
As soon as the results are in and as soon as the oral medication arrives they will call and schedule the first treatment. We will let you all know when it will be as soon as we do. Thank you for all the good wishes and prayers. You don't know how much they mean to all of us and especially my mom.
Coleen
P.S. I am heading back to Florida tomorrow since they said the side effects tend to be mild the first round and get worse with each consecutive round. I'll be heading back to Maine based on how she is feeling.
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| Weather when we left this morning. |
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| Weather when we got home. |
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