Paul has now finished his chemo treatment with this 6th round. This is the end of phase 1 of his treatment. He has done very well with the treatments. At the beginning he was given two kinds of nausea medicine and he has used none of them. The doctor told him this week that he is very unusual in how he has responded to the treatment. He has had a few side effects like hair loss, fatigue and losing some toe nails. They said that is normal for chemo. He also had some neuropathy in his fingers and toes so they cut back on the chemical that causes that problem and then finally cut it out all together. He is getting some feeling back and is hoping that it will eventually all come back.
We now move on to phase 2 which is a bone marrow transplant. This needs to be done in Salt Lake City at LDS hospital. This is the schedule:
Testing (Ivins)
Week 1 (Aug 12-18)
Aug 13 ( Mon) - protein diet
Aug 14 (Tue) - Tests
AM Pet scan, echocardiogram, pulmonary
PM Blood draw
Aug 16 (Thu) Bone marrow biopsy
We will be taking Kamary to Logan to attend USU between the testing and the doctor.
Dr. Reese (Ivins)
Week 2 Aug 21 (Tue) Lab work and consultation check up
Collection of Bone Marrow
Aug 23 (Thu) to SLC for conference
Aug 24-25 (Fri-Sat) - priming
Week 3 (Aug 26-Sep 1) SLC
Aug 26-27 (Sun-Mon) - priming
Aug 28-Sep 1 (Tue-Sat - Collection of bone marrow
Break (Ivins)
Week 4 (Sep 2-8)
Sep 2 (Sun) Return to Ivins
Hospital (SLC)
Week 5 (Sep 9-15)
Sep 9 (Sun) to SLC
Sep 10 (Mon) - check into hospital
Sep 11-15 (Tue-Sat) - chemo
Week 6 (Sep 16-22)
Sep 16 (Sun) - chemo
Sep 17 (Mon) - transplant (start of 100-day recovery)
Sep 18-22 (Tue-Sat) - recovery
Week 7 - Week 8 (Sep 23 - Oct 6) - recovery in hospital
Follow-up (SLC) outpatient clinic
Week 9 - Week 10 (Oct 7 - Oct 20)
Convalescence (Ivins)
Week 11 - Week 20 (Oct 21 - Dec 26) end of 100 day recovery.
Some of these could be shorter depending on how things go. For example they plan 5 days for the collection but they may be able to get it all in one day. It is like donating blood where they separate out the bone marrow and return the blood to Paul. We will just take it one day at a time.
When the decision was finally made by the doctors to go ahead with the bone marrow transplant Paul felt it was right thing to do. We have been greatly blessed through this whole process. All things are in the hands of the Lord.
