First 14 Days of Treatment

Our appts for R/T are at 7:30am at Scarborough, weekdays. First day of treatment is Thursday Jan 14, 2010. Treatment takes 15 minutes. Most of that time is used to position Anne for treatment and aim the radiation machine. The actual radiation is only turned on for 2 minutes each time.

Friday Jan 15, immediately following R/T Anne is scheduled for the first round of chemo therapy. This is of 2 types: CPT-11 Sysplatin, and Iranetecan. At 9:30am she starts the 5 hour IV (eye vee). They say Anne will loose her hair after her second treatment. The facility is very nice, seems busy like grand central station, they have 16 busy chemo stations, and the people working here are real nice. Anne survives the first treatment, and she sleeps and watches the football playoffs over the weekend. She isn't feeling well tho, and not able to find anything she wants to eat.

Mon, Tues, and Weds we have snow storms, but we make it in for R/T each day. On Tuesday she feels so sick (light headed) that we stay all morning getting a hydration IV, which makes her feel better. She has some real bad stomach cramps. Anne has 7 prescriptions now, just in case the side effects bother her. She is using most of these. Anne is having trouble finding anything she can eat and keep down. She can't sleep flat, so she goes to the lazy boy and doesn't get very much sleep overnight.

New week: Anne gets her C/T this week on Thursday Jan 21 immediately following R/T. Half way thru the C/T she is very sick as she sits in the cubicle. We aren't sure whether it's the C/T making her sick because she tolerated it last week. The C/T drip is turned off before she can finish the dose, and she is given more hydration and pain meds to try to make her feel better. We decide to turn the chemo on briefly to see if that is what made her sick. It did. She is having bad stomach pain and doesn't finish her C/T this day, maybe 80% of it. We drop off 2 more scripts at the pharmacy on the way home at 6:30pm, and I pick those up at 8pm. These are to try to constipate her, as she has started having uncontrollable diahrea. She starts using these medications, but they do nothing for her. What ever she eats or drinks is going straight thru her system. She feels wiped out overnight.

Friday Jan 22 we have R/T on schedule and Anne is miserable sick. She is given another hydration IV for the remainder of the morning. They give Anne 2 weekend appt's for 11:30am Saturday and Sunday for hydration (at Maine Med) if she needs it. She doesn't feel she needs it on Saturday, but she is very sick on Sunday morning so we go in at 9am. She takes 2 hydration treatments between 9am and 3pm. Anne is totally miserable on Sunday night at home. She can't keep any food or drink down and can't sleep. She is exhausted and weak.

Monday Jan 25, Anne is able to take R/T, but after that is so miserable that we need hydration again. Then we huddle with Dr. Ebrahim and decide to admit Anne to the hospital. He explains that the Iranetecan (AKA 'I ran to the can') chemo causes the diahrea. They don't have a bed at the hospital at the moment, so they ask us to head home and wait for a phone call. It's raining cats and dogs, but we head home. Around noon on the way home the cell phone rings and a bed is ready for Anne at Maine Medical Center's Gibson Pavillion. This seems to be a new section of the hospital, dedicated to cancer treatments.

They tell us Anne's situation is not unusual, lots of folks come here to get tuned up when they have difficulty with their treatments. This is 'what they do'. She ends up in a private room with special care. They are testing her for an infection known as C-dif. Those tests are negative the first 2 days. She will be cleared of that with 3 negative tests. She can't control her bowells, can't eat, sleep, and is very sick.

Tues, Jan 26: Dr confirms that Anne will not continue R/T until she is back on her feet.

Weds, Jan 27: An xray was ordered today so Dr. Ebrahim can look at her digestive tract. We'll find out more tomorrow.

For the past 2 days nothing has changed. Anne is miserable and she states that she doesn't want any more morphine, which has been ussed for the cramping. So, that drug is changed for one called hydro-morphone which helps out, this being Weds afternoon Jan 27. Things begin to settle down a bit. Anne is asking for food. She tolerated a couple spoonfuls of cream of wheat, however the diahrea has continued. She ordered rice w/salt tonight, and finished about half of it, same results, but she does feel better than the past 2 days. She wants chocolate pudding and tries some, she gets bad acid reflux and takes some malox for it.

Anne can have visitors here, but she doesn't want to see anyone now. She is able to sleep some now. She has some pain when she tries to eat anything, even the very soft plain stuff. We are not so discouraged tonight, finally.

Thurs am Jan 28: Anne is somewhat discouraged that the diahrea continues on the hour. She feels better but would like to go home. We hope for improvements today.

Your prayers help !!