chemo day one is almost over!

Chemo Day 1--history, almost. I still have a boy scout meeting to attend in Huntington Beach.

We didn’t know what to expect this morning. There were two types of chemo regimens for the doc to choose from and as of Friday we didn’t know yet for sure which one he would lean toward. As he explained today, the analysis of the growth in Geoff’s throat shows that it is a very aggressive form of lymphoma. (on a “scale” of 0-100 Geoff’s is in the 80-90% range) The good news still is that the cancer is limited to the throat only so, although it is better to do the more extensive chemo, we expect a complete positive response.

The more extensive chemo could theoretically require a hospital stay this week, but instead Geoff will receive chemo all this week as an outpatient. Today this meant spending six hours in the doctor’s office receiving numerous infusions through his recently placed and well-functioning porta-cath. At the end of the day we received a portable pump which was connected to the port and will deliver a continuous dose of three different chemo drugs around-the-clock until we return Wednesday morning. On Wednesday we will again spend six hours receiving IV chemo and will leave that day with another pump setup. This means that he can be home both tomorrow and Thursday instead of having to go in to the office everyday this week. On Friday he will receive one drug and it should only take an hour. 

We spent a lot of time talking to the nurse practitioner regarding the medicines, expectations for side effects, further prescriptions, overall treatment time frame and expected periodic blood tests. The doctor later also sat with us for awhile and we were both very pleased with the time they each gave to us and the thorough explanations they provided. 

I have to admit to being quite nervous going into today. Not knowing what to expect and having heard so many different stories of other’s experience gave a bit of uneasiness to the whole adventure. The staff truly helped us adjust to the day long adventure and we are grateful.

I went home in the middle of the day to get some snacks and water for Geoff and I was VERY BLESSED to find that in the mail today came NUMEROUS letters from our David family (and a few passersby!!!!) I still haven’t had time to read them all, but the ones I’ve read have brought tears to my eyes.  These letters were written in the first week of May and carried back to the states to be mailed.  The fact that we received them TODAY is the providence of our Good Lord who KNEW we needed to hear TODAY from our dear children and friends in David family! I sat by Geoff’s side as he received his last 1 1/2 hours of chemo and was virtually transported to the David family banda as I heard their voices speaking their love to me!  THANK YOU AUNT NANCY FOR GIVING THE CHILDREN TIME AND OPPORTUNITY TO WRITE TO US!!!!!

I would love to write more, but Toby has a boy scout meeting and we certainly don’t want to be late!!!!!  I’ll leave you with a picture of my scouting boys!!!! In a couple of weeks Acacia will be starting soccer (football) and we’ll put in a photo of her then!  For today, here is a picture of her riding the scooter in our back yard.

cub scout Kevin Troop 21 and boy scout Toby Troop 1

reading our David Family letters

P.S. Kate and Beth Kirchner are headed to New Hope in a couple of days, and we were privileged to spend Sunday afternoon with the whole Kirchner family!  It was a fun time of sharing, eating, laughing and catching up with friends!