Restarting VMP

The break was very helpful. Our mother still felt pretty lousy the whole time but she was obviously a lot better by the end of the break than she was when she started. Her lips had healed and her appetite was a lot better. We went in yesterday and have restarted to finish the last 10 days of the VMP. Our father had a bad case of vertigo last weekend. He couldn't move - the world was spinning and he threw up several times. I wasn't here but my sister who was visiting called in the paramedics in case it was a stroke. He ended up being fine after a couple of hours. We're debating when he needs to see a Dr. but will probably wait till they get back to Virginia in a couple of months. He's been extremely stressed out taking care of things and that probably was a large contributing factor to the attack.

VMP Break

This is my mother and father right before starting the VMP at Seattle's wharf.

We just saw Dr. Picozzi this morning and the weekly blood tests showed that Mom's white blood cell count is too low. So she's going to take a week break off of everything. Apparently, this is more common than not - 2/3 of patients going through the VMP require a break. So we're not too concerned about it diluting the effects of the treatment. In addition, she will have reduced strengths of the drugs when she starts again next week. Once we start, there will only be 10 days. I also asked Dr. Picozzi about the next steps. He said Mom would rest about 4 weeks or so after phase I and that she would return for tests to restage the tumor. After that we would discuss the next phases where several options would likely be offered. I think it will be a good break for our mother since she's been suffering quite a bit these past few days.

Third and Fourth Week on VMP

Starting around the 4th week, things have started to get very difficult for my Mother. I went back home and my sisters came to Seattle to help out. On the third week checkup, my mother's white blood cell count was fairly low, but Dr. Picozzi said we could still continue. My mother started to suffer from "nervousness" or "restlessness" and had some headaches. This got progressively worse but it seems it was a result of the compazine. They switched her off of that and put her on Zophran every day and that seems to have helped a lot. She also has had problems sleeping. She generally has been a light sleeper but at the start of the treatment she slept so well that she was wondering what had changed. So she's trying more Lorazepam and some Ambien to see if that helps. Her lower lip continues to be fairly raw. For a few days she didn't want to really eat anything due to nausea and a stomach ache. We upped the Protonix and that may be helping. I would say that she is pretty miserable at this point and we are looking forward to all of this being behind her soon.