not starting round 5, platelets still low

We went to the Cancer Center around 8:15 this morning to have his blood checked to see if he could start Round 5 today.

Here are the results:

His platelets are still critically low so he will not be starting chemo today.  His platelets need to be at least 80 before he can start chemo.  They were going to have him go into the hospital today for some platelet transfusions but when I reminded them that he had an allergic reaction that they attributed to the platelets he had transfused last week (which put him in the ICU) it was decided that he won't get platelets.

Since his platelets are so low he obviously needs to take it easy, no strenuous activity.  If he starts bleeding and it won't stop we have to take him to the ER at which time he would get platelets transfused.

This is the first time his platelets have failed to go back to normal ranges, usually it has been his WBC levels that stayed low.  

We will go back to the Cancer Center Monday morning to have more blood work to see if his counts have gone up enough.  

In other news we met with his doctor Monday afternoon to talk with him about future treatment and remission questions.  With Chris' type of cancer (lymphoblastic lymphoma) and treatment regimen (hyper-cvad) he has very high odds(92%) of going into initial complete remission.  

Sometime in the next few weeks Chris will be getting a PET scan to determine if he is already is remission.  Depending upon what the scan shows he may only need to complete 6 rounds of chemo instead of 8.  He will need to have radiation treatments after he completes the chemo.  We don't know yet how long those radiation treatments will be, altho I think it would be around a month.  It all depends upon what levels of the cancer they are able to detect in his body after the chemo treatments.

After radiation he will need maintenance chemo for at least a year.  This consists of weekly blood labs, oral doses of chemo, and weekly IV doses of chemo.  He would see his doctor about once a month.  He would be tested every 2-4 months for any re-occurrence of his cancer.  He has about a 40% - 50% chance of staying in remission.  

Despite his frequent neutropenia and sluggish platelet counts I am feeling much better about seeing an end to this intense chemo treatment.  These last 5 months or so have been difficult and it has been hard to see past this time when cancer and chemo is the center of our lives.  

There is a leukemia/lymphoma support group in Austin that meets once a month; I went to my first meeting last night.  I found it very helpful and plan to continue attending.