Karen is exhausted and pale as a ghost but doing well. She had her sixth chemo treatment today. Karen likes to get there early, 9AM usually and today the chemo took all day, until around 3PM. She had an allergic reaction to Oxaliplatin (a drug she's been taking all along) and began breaking out in a rash. The nurses administered Benadryl which seems to be the antidote for most allergic reactions (including Compazine).
To combat this next time, the Oxaliplatin will be administered EXTRA slow which will likely take an extra 2hours. Not a huge deal but it does place extra strain on the kids as well as whomever's mind them, not to mention Karen herself.
Today we learned that Karen will not be stopping chemo before surgery, rather they will just stop the Avastin as part of the regime. Avastin inhibits forming new blood cells and it's important to get it out of your system before surgery, otherwise you won't heal.
We also got the names of some surgeons from Dr. Moriarty which we need to go and research, one's at St Barnabas and the other's at Sloan Kettering Memorial. We know next to nothing about either of these places but perhaps someone reading this will know a friend of a friend who's been to one of these places and will write us [LINK]?
Cynthia is coming to visit tomorrow so roll on Wednesday when the pump gets disconnected.
1 comment:
Hi Fran- just read your blog and I have to tell you that my brother in law went to St. Barnabas in Livingston for his surgery( thyriod cancer) which was successful but they had a bad experience with St. Barnabas. I will find out who the DR. was and why exactly they didn't like it and let you know.
hope this helps - you guys are doing such a wonderful job with all this stuff -you blow me away!!
As always you are in our prayers -Joy
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