Chemo #3

Friday I met with General Baliban from the Joint Chiefs of Staff Oncology and like Dr. Straka he was quite pleased with what he saw. He mainly felt my lymph nodes in my neck and throat area and did an internal examination of the inside of my mouth and throat and tongue. When asked how I was feeling I told him I felt "Normal". No problems with swallowing or appetite.

So the third round of Chemo began yesterday and this will be the last treatment in which I will have to carry around the fanny pack for five days. Once the radiation begins a one day chemo treatment will be administered every three weeks, so I'm looking forward to Wednesday when the fanny pack will be removed for the last time.

Once again though yesterday there were problems with the port and the drano solution had to be used to open it up so the drugs could be adminsitered. It took about two hours to open the catheter, so an I.V. was started through my left hand to start the administering of all the other solutions that come along with the chemo. They consist of two other drugs and a saline solution and a magnesium solution and several other generic solutions all in all totaling around 8 to 10 intravenous bags. I literally thought they were trying to drown me!

So I'm now scheduled to see Dr. Sicutella on Sept. 24th for a consultation and probably another CatScan so the radiation treatments can be synchronized by the nuclear team, which takes about 7 to 10 days since it is precision laser to minimize collateral damage to good tissues.

Stay tuned for future updates and God Bless each and everyone of you for your prayers!