River Rafting at MD Anderson

Lauri and I returned to MD Anderson for our standard blood tests, chest x-ray, and meeting with the study doctor. Lauri's counts look good, so it looks like we are set for continuing chemotherapy with round 5 beginning on Monday. Our Oncologist will give the final word at our meeting tomorrow.

How they will administer the chemotherapy drugs to Lauri for the next two rounds will be changing. As you may remember from past notes, Lauri takes two chemotherapy drugs: Ifosfamide and Adriamycin. Up to now, Lauri receives Adriamycin via a "bolus", which is basically an IV bag given over 1 hour or so, on the first day only. She receives Ifosfamide over 3 hours for 4 consecutive days. The change is that Lauri will now receive Adriamycin via a "continuous infusion" over 72 hours. What does this mean to people who speak english? Instead of receiving Adriamycin via IV on day 1, she will instead get a fanny pack with the Adriamycin and a small pump that will infuse the medication much more slowly (over 72 hours instead of 1 hour). Administration of the Ifosfamide will not change.

Providing Adriamycin via continuous infusion translates to a greatly reduced risk to the heart, meaning we will no longer require the Zinicard medication. There is a greater risk of mouth sores, however, we take the study drug Palifermin to counteract that side effect. The change to the fanny pack was made to bring our medication process more in line with the study we are on. Some studies require Adriamycin to be given via bolus, while others require continuous infusion. Either way, Lauri will receive the same dose of Adriamycin, just with more "baggage" this time...

The really interesting part of our visit to the hospital was the ride home. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get home today due to extensive flooding in the downtown and Medical Center areas of Houston. We got our money's worth out of the navigation system in our car! We tried all kinds of ways of getting out of Houston, with just about all of them being blocked due to high water. We eventually weaved through subdivisions and roads we had never been on before, through the ghetto, to get to the interstate. We got home, though. Trouble is, we have to go back tomorrow, with more rain expected later today. Hopefully the water levels will fall...