Almost there

Friday, we met with the doctor prior to treatment and the doctor asked the usual questions about how Holly was feeling. Holly told the doctor about the funny feeling she has been having in her feet and how it had moved from the front of her foot to the entire foot. The feeling she is experiencing is called neuropathy and is a typical side effect. Once neuropathy sets in, you have to be careful that you don't lose all the feeling in your feet because it can affect the way you walk and drive. Another problem with neuropathy is that there is no way of telling if the condition is permanent or not. The doctor performed a thorough exam, and decided that we need to keep a close eye on her condition. If the neuropathy stays the same or gets worse, then it has been decided that Holly would get a half dose next Friday and another half dose the following week, and that would be the end of the Taxol. Dr. Dabhi explained that a typical round of chemotherapy consists of three infusions and most people get one infusion every three weeks. Due to Holly's age, condition and generally good health, the doctor decide to give Holly an infusion every week, apparently there is a slight statistical benefit to getting infused every week. If Holly gets two more half treatments, that would be a total of nine full infusions or three rounds of Taxol. Dr. Dabhi says that we have achieved the desired result of shrinking the tumor so there was no problem in finishing her treatment a bit early.

Once we figured that treatment was probably going to end in two weeks, we started talking about what was next. Holly admitted to the doctor that she was very nervous about the upcoming surgery and that Dan told her that she had done the hard part, and surgery would be a breeze. The doctor told her that Dan was right on the money, she has done the hard part and the surgery should not be that bad. The current plan is to most likely get two more half treatments of Taxol over the next two weeks, take three to four weeks to get stronger, then get surgery. Once surgery is complete, there will be a month or so to heal up, then six weeks of radiation therapy which will be administered 5 days a week.

On a funner note, the doctor showed up on a cool, bright read scooter, apparently he broke his foot in a biking accident. Dr. Dabhi was very excited about his cool scooter and told us he was planning on tricking it out.

John