Tuesday, January 23, 2007

This afternoon we were back into RMCC - Parker for training on what is coming up with the Erbitux. Once again I was impressed by the folks at RMCC. One of the nurses sat down with us and explained what they were going to do and side effects, the whole works. Even though Dr. Reznick had filled us in on everything they went over it all again to make sure we are comfortable and know what to expect.

Tomorrow I get my first base dose of Erbitux; the base is double the normal so I'll be on the bag for 2 hours this first visit and then just one hour in the following treatments. They are going to give me a little benedryl (sp?) with it just to prevent any immediate reactions. The potential reactions could be an acne like rash and possibly the runs; beats the daylights out of the chemo side effects!!! They have a room there with about 8 lazyboys and that's where I'll be hanging out every afternoon for the next 7 weeks.

I do have the appointment with Dr. Nemechek tomorrow as well and he may do another needle biopsy of Earl and we can discuss whether Earl needs to be surgically removed or not. He and Dr. Dickey have already discussed Bill and sounds like he is not going to want to cut on him.

We did speak with the nurse and let her know that I do want to go ahead and get the feeding tube now instead of later, so she contacted the gastro docs office for us and they will call us tomorrow to set up an appointment. I figure it will be easier and less of a strain on the system to get it put in now instead of waiting until I really need it...a little proactive work should make things easier in the long run. It all sounds pretty simple and easy to use; if it keeps my calorie intake and liquids where they need to be it's worth it.

So tomorrow the battle begins! Sorry boys but you days are numbered!