Round Four Delayed – A Week Off
Today Matt had an oncologist visit to check his blood counts and potentially start round four of six of the clinical trial. But…he missed his blood counts. But…he now gets a week off. So round four will now be postponed until Monday, July 6. This is not actually a bad thing as it gives Matt a week to allow his body to heal after the last few weeks of chemo and radiation treatments.
In order for Matt to start a given round of chemotherapy his ANC must be at 750 or higher and his platelets need to be at 75,000 or higher. Today his ANC was in the 2700 range which would more than qualify, however his platelets were only in the 38,000 range. Matt had been getting platelet transfusions last week to help the numbers, but platelets have a very short life span of about 7 days. Once they are depleted the body has to create more which can be a slow moving process.
The delay in treatment also impacts the administration of the DFMO that Matt has been taking. Since there is this one week delay, the DFMO will not be taken again until the beginning of the following cycle (cycle 5). The reason for taking a one cycle break from the DFMO is to evaluate and see if the DFMO is causing any of the issues with blood counts being low. I tend to think not as the last two rounds were done without DFMO, and Matt still had low counts. But I’m no doctor and don’t mind the break myself from the daily grind of pills.
The 15 day radiation to the sacrum is now complete. The lungs are the next area which need to be radiated. We’re hoping we can schedule the mapping and film sessions this week to be able to start radiation next week. There will be a total of 10 days of radiation to the lung area. Once the lungs are done all radiation should be complete.
The MRI/PET/CT scans were originally scheduled the week of July 13th but are now pushed back to the week July 20 since the treatment was delayed for a week.
It’s a lot of moving parts to keep track of, but we’re getting through it a little bit at a time. Matt is feeling pretty good overall. He just completed a summer class and will be starting another summer class today. He should be feeling good enough this week to get out and do some light activities. Though, with the heat we’ve been having lately staying indoors is not a bad move either.
