General

 

From Paul:

Cycle 7 Begins!

Doris has officially completed 6 of the 24 cycles! As a small reminder, each cycle is 28 days, or four weeks. The first treatment day was May 29. She did take a break in her treatments because she was having side effects and the PPA (medical provider) at the time felt it was better to pause her dose increase of one of her oral medications for three weeks.

The welcome news we received this week with the beginning of her seventh cycle is that there will be only one more infusion. That means that Cycle 8 will be the last one to include the infusion treatment. I looked back on my notes that I took during our initial “Chemo Teach”. I apparently started to write something about “After Cycle 8…” but I did not finish the sentence. I think it registered in my memory that infusions would be completed after Cycle 8, even though I did not document it fully at that time. 

With that news, we can rejoice that we will pass another milestone of treatment. The remainder of the treatment will include labs and continuation of the oral chemo pills with a dose in the morning, mid-day and evening. Doris takes those pills on her own and since they are known to cause gastrointestinal distress, she takes them with a snack, or just after a meal. She also plans the doses to have about the same interval between them.

As we received this news on Thursday, we also learned that Doris is our doctor’s first patient with MCL to be treated with this targeted therapy regimen. But he called her blood work “fabulous” and indicated that she is doing very well. This is indeed a new treatment regimen. We reflect on the treatments that her father received for MCL in 2016. His treatment regimen was quite different and did not last as long. Then his cancer returned. This new treatment regimen is suggested to be for situations in which the initial treatment fails. When I asked the doctor about the new regimen being used only when initial treatments fail, he said it was because the previous treatment regimen always failed, so now the recommendations are that patients just be treated with the new regimen. I cannot imagine the emotional roller coaster that would accompany the intense treatments, the recurrence, and then this extended treatment. We are hopeful that this new and improved regimen will be successful and continue to move forward in faith.

From Doris:

Hope and submissiveness

This week I had another opportunity to allow my heart to hope while being willing to submit. In short, I had another oncology appointment. As is typically the case, I had my blood drawn and tested, met with the oncologist and then had my infusion. We left the  house at 7:40 a.m. and got home at 3:10.

I never know what I will learn at these appointments. It could be good news or it could be bad. These opposing emotions are difficult to manage. My desire to exercise faith encourages me to hope. However, if the news is not good, I do not want to lose hope. I want to be willing to submit.