Treatment #2 Underway

Here's a quick post to let you know how things are going now that treatment #2 has begun.

Dr. Richards dialed back the dosage a bit for the two IV drugs, Epirubicin and Oxaliplatin. We had already gone with a scaled back dosage for treatment #1 because at the time, as we all now know, I had a cold and slightly lower white blood cell count. The idea for round #2 is obviously to try and keep the treatment from having the same extreme affect that it had last time on my white blood cell count. In addition, we decided to be very assertive with using Neulasta as a WBC booster and I'll be going back to his office on Friday, 3/6 at 3:15pm for a Neulasta injection.

So... that's the deal. At the moment I'm feeling generally OK. A bit washed out and tired but with a little help from a zofran pill I'm mostly keeping things even keel right now.

One thought that just came to mind is that people have been asking me about the college decision for Sasha and where that stands. As happened with Erin and Bailey when they made their decisions there was a "this is it!" moment on one of our recent visits. And that occurred at Colorado State in Fort Collins, CO. The campus was terrific and Sasha was accepted as one of 75 incoming freshman to the Bio Medical Sciences program as part of their honors program. That this all included a nice chunk of $$ also didn't hurt, lol. Can't let this one go... the final part of the tour had us visiting with an academic counselor in the bio med program as well as with a faculty member. Sasha and good ole dad were able to endure, with flying colors, the professor taking us through a dissection lab where there was not only table after table of dogs that were actively getting dissected but there were also a horse and ox hanging from chains and well on their way to full dissection. Yep, quite an unexpected experience for sure.

More status on the chemo front as things develop in the coming days.

Thanks to Amy's Army and everyone who has reached out with words of support. I enjoy and appreciate every bit of it.

Please remember that the Mintz's Mentschen is once again mobilizing for participation in Lance Armstrong Foundation LiveSTRONG Challenge events this year. Right now we're registered for the August Philly event and I hope to ride, minimally, the 10-mile distance as I did last year. There's a lot of time between now and then so hopefully I'll have the opportunity to go a bit further this time around. At the top of this page there's a link where you can go to my personal page to make a donation. Given the state of the economy I'm hoping to get lots of small donations this year. Any and all donations will be greatly appreciated.

LiveSTRONG!!
Jack--