End of Round 2

Chemo

The first week of chemo as an outpatient has been, thankfully, pretty uneventful.

Pam had chemo treatments with Cytarabine (one of the two chemo agents she had in the hospital) on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the clinic.  Following each treatment, she was fitted with a small pump that gives her another dose of chemo overnight, complete with whirring and clicking noises. When the pump is done, it wakes you up with a series of beeps.  I jumped out of bed every time.  (Pam doesn't jump out of bed, it is against her general principles; or policy; or religion; or something.)

Good news is that she hasn't had any nausea since restarting chemo this week.  The mysterious rash in her groin is returning, so we will need to get that checked out.

Treatment Plan

The final genetic test results finally came back.  They were "mixed", meaning it is likely that Pam will need treatment beyond just chemo, either an Autologous (stem cells from her own marrow) or Allogeneic (stem cells from someone else) transplant.  We will be going up to OHSU for a consultation fairly soon.

See Dr. Weinstein's original treatment plan drawing.

No chemo next week, but she will need to go in for three visits in the coming week to have her blood counts and chem panel monitored to make sure her liver is OK.  She will more than likely need some transfusions soon.  For right now, her white blood count is good, so we can mix and mingle with all of the germs out there with no risk.

Crosby, Still and Nash are OLD....

Stephen Stills

We had tickets to Crosby, Stills and Nash for this past Wednesday. When I bought the tickets, I forgot that I had to go to Salem that evening for a work commitment.  So, Pam took her brother Mark.  Reports are that it was a great concert, that David Crosby has lost a lot of weight and looks like an old grand dad, and Steven Stills looks like he pulls green chain at a lumber mill.




David Crosby

 

 

 

 

 

 

... but, so is The News

We have decided that we should not try to plan things much ahead of time, since we really will not know how Pam is feeling from one day to the next.  So, yesterday we bought tickets to Huey Lewis and the News at the Maryhill Winery for today. Bought them from some guy on Craigslist. And, after some effort, we found a motel room not far away in Rufus (yes, there is a town named Rufus) so we don't have to drive home after the concert. Should be fun.