Jonathon felt much better today - the most energy he's had in weeks - which fits with what the doctors told us would happen. Five or six days after they administer the chemo, he'll start feeling better, and then they'll do the chemo again. So tomorrow we go back to Chicago for the next round.
Monday's plan is to get the regular round of blood tests, the IV chemo, and then they'll do another bone marrow biopsy. This biopsy is really important - it's the first check to see if the chemo is making a difference. If it's working, we keep doing the plan we've been working on for another two weeks. This whole first month is called induction therapy. Goal #1, which is what induction therapy is for, is to get the leukemia into remission. And 90% of the time, they can do that in the first month.
Once induction therapy gets Jonathon into remission, then we start consolidation therapy. It's a different schedule of chemo treatments. That goes on for roughly 6 months. Then after that, it's maintenance chemotherapy for the remainder of the 3 years. The other interesting thing is that for men, they have to do chemotherapy for 3 years, but for women they only have to do 2 years of chemo after induction. Weird, huh?
So, hopefully tomorrow will confirm that the chemo is working, so that the next bone marrow biopsy (two weeks from Monday) shows that the cancer is in remission. We probably won't find out for a few days after, of course. *Crossing our fingers*
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Sunday, February 8, 2009
Day 17: Checking on the Plan
Jonathon felt much better today - the most energy he's had in weeks - which fits with what the doctors told us would happen. Five or six days after they administer the chemo, he'll start feeling better, and then they'll do the chemo again. So tomorrow we go back to Chicago for the next round.
Monday's plan is to get the regular round of blood tests, the IV chemo, and then they'll do another bone marrow biopsy. This biopsy is really important - it's the first check to see if the chemo is making a difference. If it's working, we keep doing the plan we've been working on for another two weeks. This whole first month is called induction therapy. Goal #1, which is what induction therapy is for, is to get the leukemia into remission. And 90% of the time, they can do that in the first month.
Once induction therapy gets Jonathon into remission, then we start consolidation therapy. It's a different schedule of chemo treatments. That goes on for roughly 6 months. Then after that, it's maintenance chemotherapy for the remainder of the 3 years. The other interesting thing is that for men, they have to do chemotherapy for 3 years, but for women they only have to do 2 years of chemo after induction. Weird, huh?
So, hopefully tomorrow will confirm that the chemo is working, so that the next bone marrow biopsy (two weeks from Monday) shows that the cancer is in remission. We probably won't find out for a few days after, of course. *Crossing our fingers*
Monday's plan is to get the regular round of blood tests, the IV chemo, and then they'll do another bone marrow biopsy. This biopsy is really important - it's the first check to see if the chemo is making a difference. If it's working, we keep doing the plan we've been working on for another two weeks. This whole first month is called induction therapy. Goal #1, which is what induction therapy is for, is to get the leukemia into remission. And 90% of the time, they can do that in the first month.
Once induction therapy gets Jonathon into remission, then we start consolidation therapy. It's a different schedule of chemo treatments. That goes on for roughly 6 months. Then after that, it's maintenance chemotherapy for the remainder of the 3 years. The other interesting thing is that for men, they have to do chemotherapy for 3 years, but for women they only have to do 2 years of chemo after induction. Weird, huh?
So, hopefully tomorrow will confirm that the chemo is working, so that the next bone marrow biopsy (two weeks from Monday) shows that the cancer is in remission. We probably won't find out for a few days after, of course. *Crossing our fingers*
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fingers, toes, arms, legs, eyes, I have them all crossed! Yet more scientific proof that women are better than men! Good thing he has such a strong woman to take care of him. Don't forget to take care of yourself to Katie!
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