Hurry Up and Wait

Well, just when you think things are going well, something happens to slow down the process. Cynthia went in for her 2nd round of chemo treatments on Monday, December 1st. The normal process is that Cynthia goes to the lab to have the chemo needle inserted, then blood is drawn for testing. After the lab, she visits with the Dr. to review the lab results. If the lab results are OK, he will then send Cynthia to the day clinic where they administer the chemo. So, on the 1st, Cynthia goes through this process, lab first then the Dr. The Dr. reviewed the results with us and all of her values looked to be in the appropriate ranges so he sent us off to the day clinic.

In the day clinic, they administered the first of the three drugs. Then the nurse received a call telling her to hold off on administering any other drugs. We came to find out the labs that we reviewed with the Dr. prior to treatment were incorrect. They drew a second set of labs and found that her white cell count was too low. The Dr. and the Director of the Cancer Care Center came to meet with her and apologized profusely for the error. The Dr. stopped all further treatment and asked Cynthia to come back on Tuesday for a shot of growth factor (stimulates white blood cell production). Cynthia went in for the growth factor shot on Tuesday and more blood work. We met with the Dr. and Cancer Center Director again on Thursday. All of her values looked to be good. However, the chemo drug that they had administered on Monday needed to work through her system before they could restart treatment. So, the Dr. recommended that we hold off until the 15th and then, if all is in line, begin the 2nd round of chemo. We also received a written apology from Froedtert as well as complete explanation of what happened and the steps they are taking to make sure this lab error does not happen again.

Needless to say, this was a very emotionally draining process for Cynthia. Each time we get delayed, it extends the end date for this adventure. We are now looking at an end date in May (not April as we originally thought). We are also very disappointed with the error in the lab results at the hospital. If the Dr. had the correct results, he would have not recommended chemo that day and, instead, would have given her the growth fact shot, then started chemo later that week. The good news is that this incident is getting the full attention of the staff at Froedtert and we are getting more focused attention as well. The bad news...no more alcohol. It was determined that the little bit of alcohol that Cynthia had prior to December 1st may have suppressed her white cell counts. So it is back to the wagon for both of us.

So, other than that (which was a lot), things are going reasonably well. Cynthia's hair loss is having a little more emotional impact on her than originally thought. She told me the other day that she has never really felt ill throughout this process. With the exception of the post-surgical issues, she has always felt good. But now, she said she looks sick. The wig looks good, but itches. I told her that shaving her head might eliminate this but she has yet to make that quantum leap.

Finally, we have our Christmas tree up and a good deal of our shopping done so it is starting to feel like the holidays here. Let me tell you, Cynthia can not wait for this year to be over. 2008 has been a challenging year in many ways and we are eagerly looking forward to a better 2009.

We hope you all have a good week. And please, when you are out attending holiday social functions, please feel free to have a beverage for us. We will appreciate it.

Bobby