Cycle 8, Day 1 = In A Fog

Today we have been in a fog in more ways than one! We started out in pretty dense fog as you can see by the picture...there is really something beyond the birdie on the barbed wire fence...if you look really closely there is a barn and at least one cow. The rest of the fog...well...just the confusion that seems to come when a new cycle is started...when one has a new doctor with a rather thick accent...when medication changes, etc.

We left the house around 7:30am. Woody checked in at 9:30am. This seemed to be a lighter day patient-wise than other days. He was called in almost immediately for his lab work. Then we really didn't have to wait very long till we were called back to the inner waiting room. The research nurse took us to a consult room and asked questions and had Woody fill out paper work. Then we went back to the inner waiting room. We saw the doctor around noon. Then we went back to the main waiting room to wait on the pharmacy. We got his chemo pills around 2:30pm and then we were out of there. We got home around 4:30pm.

Woody has not felt very well today...not sure if it was anticipation of starting a new drug study cycle or if it was that he had taken pain medication this morning and hadn't eaten (he could have eaten breakfast as he only has to not eat 2 hours prior to taking the one kind of chemo pills...but he just didn't feel like eating anything this morning). Anyway not long after he got home he got very nauseated and did end up throwing up...normally he just feels sick and doesn't "get sick." Guess that it was good that he didn't take his first dose of chemo till he got home, as he was able to get his first dose of chemo pills down around 5:30pm and managed to keep them down...so the 8th cycle has officially started.

He didn't get the Zometa treatment today as his creatinine levels had risen (doctor suggested that may be due to his blood pressure medicine). He is being taken off his blood pressure medication to get his blood pressure up to a more normal level. He is to monitor his blood pressure to make sure that it doesn't start being high again. Also, his phosphorous levels were down and he has to take a phosphorous supplement (Woody asked if he would glow!). They want him to try something different for pain...now we will see if he decides to go along with the plan! Hard to suggest more pills at this particular time when he is taking so many chemo pills...maybe next week? I was curious as to how many other patients had gotten to Cycle 8 in this drug study...the nurse (one of the research nurses we had had earlier in the study, but one we hadn't seen lately) said that she was pretty sure that Woody had stayed on it the longest at this point. Remember he got in on the study almost as soon as it got under way at Vanderbilt...there were only a couple of others who had already started on the study prior to him starting. Dr. Puzanov was very nice (and, not all that hard to understand)...just not Dr. Sosman. He did mention another study that Woody might be able to take part in when he is through with this one...injecting the melanoma areas that seem to be growing with something (part of my fog...can't exactly explain it now!). So something else to consider in the future that we hadn't heard about from Dr. Sosman. Dr. Sosman is in California, so that was the reason that we saw Dr. Puzanov today.

Woody ate supper after he took his chemo pills and seems to be feeling better now. He is relaxing in his recliner in front of the TV at the moment. And...hopefully...a good night's sleep will clear the fog!

Happy Groundhog Day!