Seton Hospital #1

Well, last week was a bear! I was told to check in Seton Hospital on Monday at 7 AM and did so, but due to a few communications blips, didn't start the first bag of poison until about 5 PM. They were kind enough to start the saline drip much earlier, though, so I was attached to the IV tree (nickname "Charlie Tree") 24/7 for the whole week.

The last bag, Adriamycin or "The Red Devil", is shown here under the brown bag. It is so devilish that they are afraid for anyone to see it. It is super caustic so while it is dripping (the final 48 hours) they have to check vital signs and blood draw from the catheter every 2 hours (night and day !!). This gives me an opportunity to check the overseas markets throughout the night and stay on top of things for all my clients.

I really do try to get a decent day's work in. After Dr. Doty leaves in the morning I watch the opening bell. Gary/Norma/Nick will call about mid-morning to check in and I try to finish reading IBD and any market analysis reports Gary has sent up. Cindy brings the new stuff from the office around lunch. We discovered I can walk Charlie and Cindy down to the cafeteria where the food is better, so lunch will be there from now on. I try to shoo Cindy away after lunch so I can work/read/make phone calls. She usually shows up again by early evening.

At least I didn't feel too bad most of the time. I did start to get a pnemonia-like cough Friday that got progressively worse through Sunday. Sleeping Friday and Saturday nights was almost impossible and coughing began to hurt so bad it brought tears to my eyes. It is better now, but I can tell my blood counts are low. I expect to be near full speed by Wednesday.

The next hospital stay will be 10/8 through 10/12. I'll get the same sequence of poison, but the poison is cumulative so the week and few days following may be a bit tougher. Since the blood counts will be lower, company will be more restricted. Dr. Doty said I may have to have blood and/or platelett transfusions. But my email works and I will post my cell number if anyone wants to call. There is a phone in the room but it does not have voice mail. My cell does. And, since the doctors and nurses frown on me taking calls while they are poking around, leave a message and I'll get back to you.

Our goal is still Stem Cell Transplant starting early-to-mid November. That will put us in San Antonio through year-end. We will have an apartment at La Cantera and I will have an office set up there. Nick or a messenger will bring files from the office weekly and I will recieve lots of stuff by computer.

I apologize for the interruption to face-to-face meetings, but we will get back to normal in 2008. Please don't hesitate to arrange a telephone conference through Norma. I want this to be as easy as possible on all my clients.

As always, thank you for your thoughts and prayers. They sustain me.

RICK

From Seton Hospital

Well, it's 3AM Wednesday morning and the steroids have kicked in. I'm wide awake looking North out of a seventh floor window.

I checked in before 7 AM Monday morning and twiddled my thumbs all day waiting to get started. Things move slowly on Mondays. I finally started Rituxan about 5 PM and Cytoxan about 9 PM. The Cytoxan is administered over 3 hours every 12 hours (9 AM and 9 PM) for 6 rounds. I get Zotran and and Mesna to offset side effects of the Cytoxan.

For 48 hours starting day 3 I'll get Adriamycin and on day 4 I'll get some Vincristine. All of the above are through the Groshong port so I am tied to a IV tree machine 24 hours a day. Of course there are various blood draws and vital sign checks throughout the day and night so I know all the nurses on all the shifts. But the steroids (Decadron pills) have kicked in so I am wired all night now anyway, so who cares?

This treatment has caused an elevated blood sugar reading so they also check that every few hours. I ate part of a candy bar after dinner last night so it spiked above 230. I had to have a insulin shot. Guess the sugars and starches are out for a while.

Hopefully, I can check out some time Friday.

Next week some time we'll check the heart to be sure these drugs aren't causing damage. Assuming that is OK I'll check back into Seton for another round of this treatment the week of October 8th. We'll probably let that soak in for a week and do scans to check progress the week of October 22nd. Assuming it will take a bit to get results, schedule events at Texas Transplant, and collect stem cells from Ann, I hope to check in at Methodist in San Antonio the week of November 5th or 12th.

Of course all of the above is conjecture right now.

Thanks for checking in and, as always, thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

RICK

My mother, Cindy & I went to Breckenridge for a long weekend and got to spend some of our time with good friends JT & Ashlee Tollett. It was a great weekend, but the altitude was hard on us lowlanders.

For more photos check out http://ashleetollett.blogspot.com/
Ashlee showed me how to create my blog and I am grateful as it makes it so much easier to push out current info to lots of friends at one time.

I had to use three different shotguns and shoot left-handed some, but I got a limit without damaging the catheter in my chest.

Well, a lot has been happening. Here is what I know today:

The R-ICE is not accomplishing what we need so Dr. Doty wants to change poison. This one will be a bit more caustic so I will receive it in the hospital. I check in Monday at 7 AM and will be there at least until Thursday morning. We will repeat this every 3 weeks until we get the necessary results, then I will move to San Antonio for SCT.

The poison cocktail I will start Monday is Vincristine, Adriamycin, Cytoxan, and Mesna. I think there is another ingredient or two, but I don't know what they are. Some of these were in the R-CHOP mix I took last year, though I suspect the quantity has been increased.

I'll post again when I know more.

As always, thanks for your prayers and good wishes.

RICK

Well, we had a setback yesterday. Dr. Doty said this chemo is not accomplishing what we need to get where we can start transplant. As sometimes happens with cancer, we need to find a new poison.

Doty will confer with Neelapu @ MDA this week. My next appointment with Doty is Tuesday the 18th. I will post again as soon as we have a new game plan.

Thanks for checking in.

Rick

NOTE: double-click on any photo and it will increase in size