Day 1

Timeline of Events:
07:45 - Arrive at Oncology Unit
08:00 - Meet with Dr. Wood for last minute questions. He said Dan's Pulmonary Function Test(PFT) was borderline and wants to talk with Dr. Brewer. Dr. Brewer decides to repeat the PFT with one additional test before giving his approval for Chemo
08:30-09:00 - PFT. This time Dan passed his 3 lung tests. The one he failed last week (scoring 75% of expected value) was a measure of absorption. He breathed in a tracker and then held his breath as long as he could and then blew out everything he could. This week he got 82% (80% is passing) and was allowed to continue with his chemo plan. The main reason his absorption is less than ideal is because he is slightly anemic.
09:00-09:30 - Wait for Dr. Brewer to call Dr. Wood back with his approval
09:30 Right arm IV placed and 1 Liter of Normal Saline infusion started.
10:40 - 2units of Bleomycin SQ given as a test dose to see if he has any breathing difficulty. At this point we met Andrew, an Army man currently on week 3 of 9 of the BEP cycle for Testicular cancer. He told Dan that Day 1 is the worst since your so anxious with what to expect and that it gets better.
11:40 - Kytril pill, Emend pill and Decadron IV given as pre-medication for nausea.
12:45 - 30units of Bleomycin IV given (over 5min) & 35mg Cisplatin IV given (over 1 hour).
14:00 - 180mg Etoposide IV given (over 45min)
14:45 - 1 Liter of Normal Saline (over 1 hour)
15:45 - Lab work drawn to repeat his liver function tests.
16:00 - Go Home.

At home he will be on Zofran 8mg three times a day and Compazine as needed.

So his day that was supposed to be 8-12 lasted a tad longer than expected. Tuesday-Friday should be alot shorter. 1 hour of fluid, 1 hour of Cisplatin, 45min of Etoposide, 1 hour of fluid. No bleo until next monday.

I will add some pictures and some detailed lab work for those intrested in the nitty-gritty stuff tonight. I had to work this evening. I dont want to bog down this site with tons of info so I am going to put the lab work into a spreadsheet and link you to it.