Treatment #3 and a good report.

Hello All - this is Cathy, Tom's sister, making the update for him. Tom met with Dr. Sherry for a check on his progress and then received his 3rd round of chemotherapy at the cancer center today.

Dr. Sherry was optimistic after seeing Tom saying he looked more robust than 2 weeks ago and he noticed the swelling in the jaw had lessened. He also checked the rash which is a side effect of the chemo. Tom has red and itchy spots on his nose, forehead, scalp and chest. Dr. Sherry was happy to see that the rash was contained to the upper body and rated it a 1 out of 4 (4 being the worst case). He indicated that other patients had more severe cases of this rash covering their entire body and most of them had to stop the treatment. This is the same rash Tom had with the chemo treatments last year in Phoenix so he began using the prescription creme left over from then to help lessen the symptoms. The chemo regimen has him receiving taxotere 3 out of 4 weeks every month. He will receive erbitux every week of the month. Dr. Sherry says the erbitux is a biologic that impedes the epidermic growth. The monthly regimen will continue as long as the effects of the treatment are not worse than the disease. After 2-3 months of treatment the doctor will order scans to determine if there is an impact on the disease.

Tom also had some vomiting and diarrhea earlier this week but that has since subsided. This did not stop him from playing the weekly round of golf with Dad on Thursday. He continues to stay as busy as possible with various activities around the house and yard.

Tom's level of pain was checked ... today it was 4 of 10, last Saturday it was 2, and 2 weeks ago it was 7. As the doctor recommended, Tom had increased the number of times he takes the morphine to 6 times per day. This does seem to help but it varies from day to day. Dr. Sherry suggests we double the fentanyl patch and then 8 - 10 hours later begin reducing the amount of morphine. Reducing the amount of narcotics is preferred as long as the increased fentanyl provides similar relief.

A culture from his mouth was taken today as he developed some type of infection on his tongue. Dr. Sherry feels it is topical and can be treated with antibiotics.