Chemo Cycle 1 Day 3

RECAP OF DOUGIE’S History: Doug has been diagnosed with base of the Tongue cancer, it is a large tumor (that has been there a long time and was misdiagnosed multiple times, not to mention the fact that it was overlooked on the CT scan done last June) and will need to be treated aggressively. He is stage IV (the worst stage) We originally went to Emory after the diagnosis and spent several weeks working on getting tests done that stage him and get him ready for chemo/radiation. 4 weeks after the diagnosis, when we still had not started treatment, I calledthe doc I used to work for (a God send) and he set us up with a team of people who are ready to cure him. The road ahead is going to be really rough, he will undergo 7 weeks of radiation daily with weekly chemo treatments after the 3 rounds of high dose chemo that he is starting today. This treatment will severely burn his throat and prevent him from swallowing, so I will be feeding him through a tube inserted into the stomach. He will lose the ability to salivate most likely this will be permanent, lose mobility of the tongue and jaw, and temporarily lose the function of his taste buds. We are hoping his teeth and jaw bone will be okay, lots of people lose their teeth and their jaw bone is damaged with radiation. The doctor said his tumor is pretty far back, so we may not have that issue.

Treatment Plan: Doug will have 2-3 doses of 3 different chemo agents (the third treatment will be given if he is strong enough, the chemo he is getting is going to be really hard on him) and then begin 3 new chemotherapy agents every week with radiation everyday for 7 weeks. These doctors are aiming for cure and feel as though Emory was not only wasting time, they were not seeking aggressive treatment. He is expected to be quite sick from the treatments and will lose his hair, but we are so thankful to begin treatment.

Dougie started chemo on Wednesday, he got chemo agents: Taxotere, Cisplatin and 5FU.  (He likes the name of the last drug, he wants a shirt that says that! 🙂 )  He is hooked up to a pump that is continuously delivering the 5Fu slowly over the next few days.  The pump is in a fanny pack, so he has a designer blue fanny pack he is wearing, the alterative was to to sling it over his shoulder and wear it as a purse.  He decided that the fanny pack is less gay looking, so he went with that!  So he is a man with lots of tubes!  He has his stomach tube, which is a wonderful thing, I am able to get fluids and liquid food down it.  One of the most popular reasons for hospital admission during chemo is dehydration, so we should be able to avoid this with his stomach tube.  He also has a port under his skin right below the clavical on the right side.  That is where he is getting his chemotherapy.  When the bag is empty, I will disconnect the needle from the port and he will be able to forgo the fanny pack for the next 17 days or so.

While he was getting chemo we were talking about all the events we did while he had his undiagnosed cancer.  For instance, we did Muddy Buddy while he had cancer (just imagine how much faster we could have been if he was not sick).  He had a 288 Fight Gone Bad score with cancer, next year when he is cancer free, I expect a 300+ on that! 🙂

Doug is doing good today, he had a rough evening with a bout of nausea, but I dosed him up with some good stuff to help him sleep and battle the nausea.  We are hoping to go to church on Saturday night, that is when the Christmas eve service will be.  Hopefully, he will feel up to it, if not, we will try for Sunday morning.