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Rough Week with Great News!

Friday Feb 7th: 
It was a rough week, but yesterday was fabulous.  It started with hydration at 11am in Irvine.  They also had an order to do a blood workup to send to Dr. Carroll for our appointment in Newport at 2pm.  They got the first results and were very concerned with his hemoglobin numbers. No surprise to me, I think he was the worst on Tuesday and was improving slowing.  (Who knows what the #'s were on Tuesday) They immediately took him off hydration and sent us straight to see Dr. Carroll in Newport at 12:00 even though our appointment was at 2pm.

We met with Dr. Carroll and he quickly approved a blood transfusion.  We've never done that before. Then Brace explained to Dr. Carroll how worried he was at the thought of doing chemo one more time.  We've completed 5 so far.  Dr. Carroll said that 6 is the max you can do for this regiment. He then said the idea is to take someone to the edge of death and he felt we had definitely done that.  He saw NO REASON to continue with the chemo!!!!  That means chemo is done.  I'm still trying to process the great news.  His white blood count is 2.34 so he still has no immune system but every day he should get better!!  He will instead try to get approval to do immunotherapy on the 18th, which shouldn't make him sick, every three weeks for the next year.  He thinks it will be hard to get approved, but that is the plan.

So off we went back to Irvine and for the next three hours they finished his hydration but most importantly gave him O positive blood!  He felt better even after only 30 minutes.  I think he was anemic as well as having a sad immune system.

Saturday Feb 8th: 
Today he took at long nap after eating a waffle and some formula.  I went to say hello at one of the Glee recitals.  When I got home I cooked him barbeque shrimp and zucchini.  He needs things to be wet and have no salt because his salivary glands won't work because of radiation.  They say that might take a year to resolve.  His salt taste buds are overactive right now so most things taste too salty.  He LOVED the dinner I made!   That is his first full meal in a long time.  It is a lot of work to eat but it makes him happy to have less formula.

It is a great weekend!

Thank you's
******************
Melissa Calvano for bringing Zofran
Wendy and Sean Vassilaros for bringing yummy soup, tortilla chips and Zofran.
Kjarstin for running four Glee recitals on Saturday Feb 8th.






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