Plan D

Determined @ Duke

Looks like Durham is home for a while. We have plan D, which is like plan C with much more radiation. Seems we are going to “boost” this week. Drew will get outpatient radiation treatment at Duke, Tuesday through Friday, directed at the main tumour in his abdomen. He has lost twenty pounds since the chemo eight days ago, so it should be easy to find!

After a free Saturday, he will check into Duke University Hospital (with the unfortunate acronym of DUH) for the other radiation therapy, total body irradiation (a friendly acronym TBI). Seems the difference in the two types of radiation is that in TBI, he sits on the other side of the room from the radiation machine so it gets all of him. He got measured for some shields (you really don’t want it to hit absolutely all of him, so they shield a few parts).

Then, around May 5th, we shift to a new chemo. By then, the radiation should have done two jobs. The first is to kill all the cancer cells and Drew’s blood cell system, the bone marrow. The second job allows the transplant, which he gets on the 9th of May, to start working. Hopefully, the donated cord blood stem cells will engraft (think of the stem cells sticking and taking root) and produce bunches of healthy new red cells, white cells, and platelets.

And yes, don’t panic – we have a Plan E already in the wings. Should the stem cells fail to engraft, Ben will be used as the next option. While he is only a 3 out of 6 HLA match (not good enough for the primary transplant option) – as a second option, results are promising with other patients that did not accept their primary transplanted cells. Always good to be where the research is happening.

Check out our calendar on this site, complete with birthdays and other events. We have moved in to Evergreens Apartments @ Mount Moriah, a few miles from the hospital. It already feels like home – a frig full of Gatorade and a cabinet full of prescription drugs for nausea.

Drew is doing as well as can be expected. He is tired, nauseated, dehydrated and ready to get this disease out of his body. So let the radiation begin!!

Oh, we have a new word for those interested in increasing their medical vocabulary: a dosimetrist - one who measures the dosage of radiation a patient receives! Who knew!