Last week, Darrel had a CT scan on Monday and no chemo. He felt pretty darn good and was quite active building a fence at our rental, capturing bee swarms, and working around the yard.

Today we had a doctor appointment to review the CT and chemo scheduled for after. There was a bit of a mess up as they called us at the last minute to change our 10:20 appointment with the doctor since he got tied up at the hospital. We ended up seeing him at 1:00.

The CT scan showed the tumors increasing again so the current chemo regimen has stopped working. The doctor wants to try him on a new chemo regimen starting next week. He will be on 5FU (flourouracil) and ironotecan. The ironotecan is about a 2 hour infusion and the 5FU will be a 48-hour pump that he will wear home and then have to go back in to have removed.

This is the more toxic regimen that we were hoping to stay away from, but the current treatment isn’t working. He will receive it every 2 weeks until they do another CT scan to determine if it is working. There is a good possibility that they will add in another chemo, oxaliplatin.

These drugs can and probably will cause severe diarrhea, mouth sores, and more neuropathy in the hands and feet. The doctor said that the rest of his hair will fall out.

The doctor told us to go to Sitka (tomorrow) and catch a lot of fish and then the new treatment will start next week.

Disappointing news.

Your hopefully-not-seasick, Sitka bound friend, Robin