Dr. Spielvogle's Visit

Today, I met with my medical oncologist and the rest of "MY TEAM" at UPMC. All very nice, devoted, dedicated, compassionate people. Chemo will be one day a week for three hours for 6-7 weeks. This will be running concurrently with the 5 day a week, 71/2 weeks of radiation. I will be premedicated with Kytril, Benadryl, Decadron & Pepcid for one hour prior to the chemo. Then, Paclitaxel will infuse for one hour, followed by Carboplatin for approx. 45 minutes. Five tablets of Decadron the night before and five tablets the morning of chemo. Blood will be drawn prior to each treatment focusing on RBC's, WBC's, Platelets, & Neutrophils. Weight and nutrition is a huge issue. If you lose 10-15% of your body weight, a feeding tube goes in. IV's as needed if felling sluggish and dehydrated. If you haven't noticed by now, EATING is a huge issue. So my life is now focused on the most calories I can manage to eat. Because radiation will be affecting the esophagus, there is a little extra problem. But, as my Dad told me, "These are just inconveniences!" There will be NO feeding tubes in my future. I will do what ever is necessary. Failure is not an option. (Debbie, take your laptop to MB-I need your hilarious comments.) Linda
By the way, this all begins tomorrow if they can get the pre-authorization from my insurance (not being real helpful), otherwise, Monday is D-Day!