Round 3

Joe started round 3 today. They added the new mix (after arguing with the insurance company - a constant battle) and we'll have to wait and see if he has more side effects. His treatment this week will go from 52 hours to 55 hours. We met with the Dr. today and he said the UofA Dr. confirmed that Joe is a candidate for the hot chemo surgery/treatment. The plan now is to continue this treatment (5 mixes for 12 weeks-one week on, one week off). Joe will finish in April. We will go to Tucson in April and they will begin a series of tests to determine when they will schedule the surgery. The chemo he is on now has to shrink the tumors enough where they can operate. Right now, he has too many tumors to operate. Hopefully, we'll get good news in April and they will schedule the surgery. The surgery consists of opening Joe, removing the leftover tumors, heating a chemo mix to 108 degrees and "flooding" and scrubbing his abdominal area. There is a whole lot more to it, but we'll learn more when we go to Tucson. After the surgery, he has several weeks of recovery and then they will start his current chemo treatment back up, because they can't be sure they will have killed all the cancer cells. We don't know how long that will be. He did say this hot chemo is fairly new (2010), so they don't have a long history with this procedure. We're just so happy they have a procedure!

On another positive note, the Dr. was amazed by Joe. He has been losing 5-7 lbs each chemo week, but has been able to put it back on, so he's only down 15 lbs in total. He also said his white blood count is excellent. He keeps reminding Joe - you're young and healthy (and has an amazing attitude). And Joe added, "and I have a great support group". It's all a great combination to beat this thing. So, as always, thank you "support group". We couldn't do this without you.

XOXO
Sherrie

p.s. I'll be updating the blog at the end of this week to let you know how Joe is doing after this round.