Yesterday was the melphalan infusion, it only took a half hour or so. Melphalan causes mucositis (severe mouth sores), so they had Mom suck on ice chips before, during and after the infusion. The intent is to help reduce the severity of mucositis by decreasing circulation in the mouth and lessening exposure to the drug circulating in the blood throughout the mouth. Everything went fine, so Mom is now officially done with the chemotherapy conditioning regimen phase of the transplant.
Today was a day of rest. They unhooked her from the IV for today, so she actually has to drink lots of fluids now instead of relying on the constant saline solution infusion to provide hydration. The advantage is that she doesn't need to lug an IV pole loaded with bags of drugs and pumps along with her when doing her daily laps walking around the hospital ward corridors.
She is gradually getting a little more tired and has less of an appetite (which is to be expected), but is still eating fine at the moment. She has developed a bit of a mild skin rash, that may or may not be due to a drug allergy. The constant itching is the largest side effect at the moment, but a dose of Benadryl appears to work to keep it in check so far. It will take another week or so for the full effects of all of the chemotherapy to kick in.
Tomorrow, Nov. 21st is Day 0 which is when the actual stem cell infusion will begin. This is commonly known as a "new birthday" in the transplant world, since you are basically starting out new again with a rebooted immune system. Due to the volume of harvested stem cells, Mom will be receiving these stem cell infusions over a two day period.
Chris
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