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