Day sixteen - part one

Waiting for his treatment this morning

Enjoying the view (or looking for an escape)!

We dropped Houston off at the hospital this morning before 0800.

It is his first day stay visit for chemo and it's also the first time in 10 days that he is being examined by his doctors.

His medicine specialist, who is coordinating his chemo, called me a little while ago to say that the results from his first blood tests this morning are back. She said his kidneys appear to have stopped over producing enzymes - last time it was 350 and now it is 200 (normal is 180). So that is great. They can stop treating him as if he also had kidney failure.

He is however still low in red blood cells, despite his bone marrow keeping up with producing new ones (there was a chance it'd be affected by the chemo.)

So, the doctor thinks there are two reasons why this is occurring.

1. He could have an autoimmune disease which is attacking the red blood cells;

or 2. he could have a parasitic blood infection.

They've asked to do another blood test that will test for both. I have agreed to this. I'd prefer to know what we are up against considering we are doing all we can to fight the cancer and make Houston feel better.

The good news is that the tumor in Houston's stomach can now no longer be felt during an examination; and his kidneys have mostly gone back to their normal size and structure (the right one is still a little larger).

He is having his chemo injected today (hence the need for the day stay) and will be home this afternoon.

The doctor also mentioned that his response to the chemo so far (so well) has promoted them to lower the dosage of one of his agents; and he'll be skipping treatment next week. Which will be a well deserved break for him since he goes off his food and sulks for two days afterwards.