Post-Chemo

October 26 - Day 15

Last Saturday and Sunday, days 9 and 10, I got the final chemo drug, called Cytarabine. I got the same drug in the first induction, but this time it was given as a 3 hour IV drip, twice a day. Unfortunately, the earliest time to start is about noon, so the second dose was from midnight to 3 am. Not conducive to sleep.

A few hours later on Monday morning, I was feeling pretty bad. I had a high temperature, 39.5, and very low blood pressure - as low as 80/46. They jumped on this with antibiotics and tylenol, as well as red blood cells. (I actually got red blood cells the day before as well, because my hemoglobin count was low.) After a few hours they escalated this to the rapid response team, who determined from blood cultures that I had an infection, probably from my Hickman line which has been in for 6 months. So that was removed, and I was moved up to the ICU.

They determined the family of bacterial infection quickly, and I was already on the right antibiotics for that anyway, so I recovered quickly in the ICU and was back in my normal room the next day. I also continued to get red blood cells for a couple more days. The only problem was they needed to monitor my 'liquid output' to compare against the amount of fluid they were pumping into me, so I had to be catheterized.

The next couple of days were a lot better. My cough is getting worse though, which is affecting my sleep as well as everyone around me, and I'm having occasional low grade fevers. So today, after getting platelets, I had a CT scan.

Up to now, close to half way through this induction therapy, I'd say I'm doing better than the first one. Then I had a pretty fast, deep and prolonged decline, with slow response. This time, the decline was faster, but was handled much quicker and I got back to near normal in a day. Of course, there are still another ten days or so before my cell counts should all be climbing, so bad things can still happen.

Mid-Chemo

October 20 - Day 9

For five days, Monday through Friday, days 4 to 8, I had two different medications for chemo.

The first is called Mitoxantrone (pictured below), and is given by injection over a few minutes. It's dark blue, to complement the red Daunorubicin I got in the first induction. I believe the two drugs are in the same family. All I need now is something green to get on the RGB charts!

The second drug is called Etoposide (pictured here) and is given as an IV drip over an hour or so.

I have also been on an IV antibiotic four times a day, which ended Thursday night (actually 4 am). Stopping this makes sleeping easier of course, though that's never great in the hospital.

The next two days (Saturday and Sunday, days 9 and 10), I'll be getting a different chemo drug, called Cytarabine. I got the same drug in the first induction, but this time it's given differently. More on that later.

Hospital First Days

October 11 - Day 0

Went to the hospital Thursday p.m. for an ultrasound on my butt abcess. Turns out it's not too deep, and could be treated with antibiotics or possible minor surgery. While we were at the hospital, the hospital called us at home to say a bed was available. Of course we missed this call, and got a seccond call around 6:30. After dinner we went to check in. Got a private room at least (for now anyway.) Got some bloodwork, but no IV, so sleep was possible.

October 12 - Day 1

Saw DRAP and the pharmacist. Had at least 8 people look at my butt. Surgeons concluded it is draining itself (very slowly) and that they would not open it up more. On antibiotics - drip 4 times daily for 30-45 minutes, then disconnected from IV for the rest of the time. Decided to delay chemo until Monday to give the butt thing a chance to improve first. In the evening also saw DRRB.

October 13 - Day 2

Just more of the same. Antibiotics 4 times, a few visitors.

October 14 - Day 3

Same again. Chemo should start tomorrow.

Bone Marrorw Biopsy and Results

October 11

Ater three cycles of Vidaza, it was time to check on my progress. So on Tuesday, I had a bone marrow biopsy (5th one to date.) Sometimes they'll wait until after six cycles, but since a bone marrow donor has been found it was worth checking early.

And it's a good thing they did it now. Because, unfortuantely, it seems that the treatments have been totally ineffective, and that I have relapsed into a much worse state.

So now I have to go back into the hospital for another round of induction therapy (7 days of treatment, followed by two or three weeks of recovery). The drugs will be different from the first time, but I expect that it'll be very hard, like the first time.

This will most likely start today or tomorrow.