technically cycle 1 - day... 10

Katie is typing this update for Allen.

It has been awhile since the last post. Allen has been too tired to type. Lots has happened. As you know, we came home from the hospital on Saturday. It was rough to begin with, but good to be home.


Sunday Allen started really perking up and needed rest, but ate food and got around the house just fine. When he would get really sleepy - he would entertain the heck out of Russ with delayed comments and muted facial expressions. We had many visitors that wore him out (even a visitor that brought us a Christmas tree that they cut down especially for us!!)

Monday was very similar, he was doing well. He can't drive, definitely fatigued, but his demeanor was VERY Allen. We went back down to the hospital to get a shot that boosts his immune system by stimulating bone marrow growth. While there, we spoke with a different doctor and there is a potential change in the course of treatment (I will get to that part later... so much has happened). He was great Monday night and we both went to sleep at 9pm.

Tuesday I woke up early for a VERY busy day at work, I had meetings back to back with little break all day. I called Allen to check on him and he didn't sound great so Russ went over to check on him. He had a fever of 100.9 so Russ gave him Advil and called the nurse. With the advil, water and cold compress, the fever went down fast. The nurse told us that we should not give him more Advil after that to check if the fever was going to come back. By the time I got home from work, it had come back and Russ and I piled Allen and stuff we could grab into a car and headed down to the hospital ER to get him checked out (of course this was rush hour and they suggested we not go to the nearest hospital, but the one he is being treated at, University of Colorado Hospital, so off we went to highway driving - at 5pm - sigh - a 40 min drive took 2 hours, ah well)

The ER was great, they were waiting for us. They took him back in a room and ran tests. Bottom line is that he has Neutropenic Fever, a common thing with chemo (http://www.chemocare.com/managing/fever_neutropenic_fever_and_their.asp). It is very treatable, but he was re-admitted to the hospital so they can monitor him. After they told us what it was, Allen remembered he had this on the first go-round, which was nice to know. Russ and I stayed until he was in his room (same room) and we had talked to the doctor. (so we didn't get back until 1:40am and are, therefore, tired today)

Allen is now doing great and is still sleeping a lot. He is on antibiotics and will be in the hospital until his white cell count it up and his fever is down. (probably Friday, but maybe tomorrow)

New course of treatment: another doctor has been brought into the loop on Allen's case. They talked to the surgeon who wants to check the progress of the first cycle of chemo before starting the second. Depending on what they see in a CT scan and blood test on Friday, we will be going to a new cycle on Monday OR booking a flight to Indianapolis to talk to the doctor that trained the surgeon here... so Allen may be operated on by the same doctor that did Lance Armstrong's surgery.

Well, there's the update - I tried to be concise, but I am not very good at it :) I am sure there are many questions (we have a lot too) feel free to ask and we will answer what we can. - Check out the pictures below.