MEETING WITH THE NURSE RE: CHEMO

I'll start at the end - Dave begins his chemo on Monday, Oct. 7 at 9 AM.  The first event will be getting the pick in his arm which will remain there for the month he's getting the IV infusions. After getting the pick he'll have about an hour's worth of fluids, then an anti-nausea drug and finally the interferon.  The nurse practitioner, Rosemary, told us to expect to spend about 3.5 hours there the first day, and subsequent appointments may drop to 2.5 hours.

Now I'll back up a bit.  Rosemary has been with Dr. S only 5 days; she worked elsewhere previously.  She seems very knowledgable and organized though there were just a few procedural items she needed to learn e.g. she wasn't quite sure how often Dr. S expected Dave's blood to be drawn to check on his cell counts and liver.

Dave will be getting a dosage of 40 million international units/m2 by IV infusion for 5 consecutive days per week for 4 weeks, then he'll move into the maintenance phase with 10 million international units/m2 given subcutaneously (self-injected) 3 times per week for 48 weeks.

We were given a book on chemo, its side effects and what we can do to alleviate them; a book on nutrition "before, during and after cancer treatments" and a sheet that is specifically on interferon and its side effects.  Rosemary answered every question we had, from "how high a temperature reading should result in a call to the doctor?" (101º) to "how do we know if the anti-depressant isn't working?" (he won't want to get out of bed, see people, etc.).

Although an anti-nausea drug will be given intravenously, it may wear off during the day so Dave was given a prescription for Promethazine that he can take as needed.

He was also given a prescription for Sertraline (Zoloft).  Both Dr. S and Rosemary strongly recommend using it, as depression is a very common side effect and it is better to stay on top of it rather than try to manage it later in the process.  We stopped at Target on the way home to fill both prescriptions.

Dave is to drink 3-4 liters of fluids a day (though the first month he will get one liter intravenously), take no more than one 30 minute nap per day, and exercise - even if it is just walking - as much as he can.

Rosemary seemed confident that whatever side effects Dave has can be managed so he will not be "sick" during his treatment.  He is expected to feel fatigued, and perhaps achy, very similar to feeling like he has the flu.

We stopped in to look at the treatment room and met the nurse who will get Dave hooked up on Monday.  He will also be seeing Rosemary every morning before his daily treatment. We're feeling more optimistic about the upcoming month than we were (or at least I was) after reading story after story online.

And now, it's after 5 o'clock!  We're headed to LandingsFest for dinner, tomorrow Dave is kayaking, Sunday is church and a family dinner.  We have lots to do before 9 AM on Monday!