More Chemo

Well folks, here I am again. I am at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital here in Salt Lake City. I arrived Friday afternoon and thy started infusion of the chemo drugs that evening, so I am close to the end of the second 24 hour infusion. Monday evening, I'll be done with the chemo, but I have to stay an extra 24 hours so that they can infuse protective stuff for the rest of my body. Fun!

So far this time, I haven't had to many side effects. In fact, I'm feeling fairly good. I regained a lot of my strength and appetite by Friday and that hasn't changed much since they started this second round of drugs. I am thankful for that.

Here is a link to some information about this hospital in case anyone is interested: http://www.huntsmancancer.org/phaseTwo.jsp#

Just cut an paste that into your browser if it isn't active as a link in the text.

Here are some pictures of the hospital, my room, the infusion pumps and all the bags of fluid going at once.

This is my hospital room. It is rather nice with a lot of wood and custom cabinets, etc. Nice big windows looking out to the hills to the east where I can watch birds, squirrels, hikers and bikers.
This is a mug shot of the interns and residents that came to "visit" me yesterday. Dr. Grantz in the middle is kind of the lead dude. He is very nice and pleasant to visit with. I can't recall the names of the other two, but they are nice too.
Here is the cluster of pumps for the infusion of chemo. There is a central computer attched to the four pumps, two on either side. A far cry from the old gravity fed dial a flows that I learned to use 20 something years ago.This is the collection of fluids I am receiving. The brown covered bag is the doxyrubicin. It is a pink fluid that runs for 24 hours continuously. The smaller bag that is on the right and hanging over another bag is the ifosamide (spelling?) that runs for 3 hours every afternoon. The two of these drugs were described by the oncologist at the "red devil" treatment. She said it is about a mean as it gets with this stuff.

I lost most of my hair, but not all of it. One day it all started to come out in big clumps and handfuls. After about 5 days, that just all stopped leaving me with thin stringy hair. I'll keep what I can for as long as I can, but I suspect that at the end of the second week from this infusion, I'll lose the rest.

All of your kind thoughts and prayers are so appreciated. Thank you for posting such nice and heart flelt thoughts. Please continue to do so. I appreciate you filling my bucket from time to time with your kindness.

May God bless you always.

Jim