Skip to main content

Some good news, and some bad news

Well, Edie's creatinine has fallen back to 3.5, which is good, but her hemoglobin is continuing to fall, and is down to 8.4, which isn't good.

So the oncologist wants to keep her there for another day, to monitor her further, while she continues pumping additional fluids into her, and starts her on a Velcade + Doxil treatment regimen (Velcade today and Doxil Friday).

Doxil + Velcade has shown some efficacy, as indicated in this 2006 ASH abstract, so we are hoping for the best.

In the mean time, I am getting some more personal items for her, including her computer. Hopefully there is a wireless access point some where for her to log on to the internet. If not, she can at least watch a couple of DVD's.

One good bit of news is, she has a private room, the unfortunate part of that is, I believe that perk is afforded all cancer patients.

NOTE: As of  11:30 AM Edie does have internet access (albeit a very slow and inconsistent connection), but you may be able to contact her via email or just call her cell phone should the email fail. 

Comments

Becky said…
Hi Marc:

Give Edie our best (mine and John's)

Hang in there.
Mark VanKirk said…
Spoke to her yesterday and she sounds good. Hope the treatment works....

Popular posts from this blog

Fatigue! Part II - Maybe it is real?

Or it's actually Motivational Deficiency Disorder, MoDeD (pronounced Mo-Dee-Dee) for short. In a report this week by Roy Moynihan who reports for the British Medical Journal Austrailian scientists may have come across the reason for extreme laziness . The condition is claimed to affect up to one in five Australians and is characterised by overwhelming and debilitating apathy. Neuroscientists at the University of Newcastle in Australia say that in severe cases motivational deficiency disorder can be fatal, because the condition reduces the motivation to breathe. Neurologist Leth Argos is part of the team that has identified the disorder, which can be diagnosed using a combination of positron emission tomography and low scores on a motivation rating scale, previously validated in elite athletes. "This disorder is poorly understood," Professor Argos told the BMJ. "It is underdiagnosed and undertreated." Who knew? Maybe I have MoDeD, from my attempts to become a...

History IS repeating itself

I didn't grow up during the rise and fall of Hitler and Nazi Germany, so for me to claim it feels like those are the times we are living in now, must be taken with a grain of salt. But I have seen enough movies, and read enough history to know, if the times we're living in now are not akin to the rise of a Nazism and Facism in Europe in the 1930's and 1940's, then we're not far off. If you can't see the parallels with Nazi Germany, then you must be living in a different country than me. Republicans and other right wing extremists will stop at nothing to subvert the will of the majority, forcing their beliefs, that they are the superior race and have been appointed by God, to impose their will on America, while they blame all our problems on immigrants, blacks and Jews. As I speak, Mitch McConnell, and his minions are raising roadblocks to all legislation designed to help average Americans under the guise of fiscal responsibility. They condone violent and verba...

My concerns reaffirmed today

When I was first diagnosed with MCL, I pretty much read just about everything I could get my hands on, I attended various conferences, and I talked to anyone who would listen. One of the most important lessons I learned, and which I've mentioned numerous times before was No one cares more about you than you. But in addition to that, I learned to fear the drug Doxorubicin , AKA Adriamycin, Doxil, Hydroxydoxorubicin, or more affectionately the Red Devil. Besides being a deadly chemical, as is the case with most chemotherapy drugs, it is one of the few chemotherapy drugs known to cause permanent heart damage. I even heard Dr. Sandra Horning , a noted Stanford lymphoma specialist, state at the first lymphoma conference I attended in LA, there was no evidence Doxorubicin provided any added benefit to chemotherapy protocols. This was music to my ears, since Doxorubicin is very common in most lymphoma treatment protocols. And even though Dr. Horning has since changed her tune [which my sk...