Chemo Day 2 and Update on Blood Clots

Quick update:  Ray had his 2 chemo shots this am and tolerated them well, no nausea so far today!  He also got his procrit shot, also in the stomach area...so that's 3 in the stomach this am.  The dr is continuing the procrit hormone shots despite the poor response to date (week 5) and the blood clot side effects.   

Blood Clot Update:  Ray was told by the nurse this am that she had spoken to the dr and he said he'd talked to the radiologist finally and he had found nothing wrong and no blood clot and could go home and no further follow up was needed.  However, as luck (?) would have it, he ran into the good Dr on his way out (Dr was coming in for the day) and they engaged in a replay of the nurse's comments.  The Dr. denied having had any conversation with the nurse at all and told Ray he could not leave until he talked with the radiologist, whom he called immediately.  Turns out Ray DOES have a blood clot in both his leg and arm!!  (Yes, you can get them in your arm!!)  The good news is these are not the true life threatening deep vein clots.  They are called "surface vein thrombophlebitis" as the clots are in the surface veins close to the surface of the skin.  He now has to give himself 2 more injections/day for a month with another blood thinning medication to resolve these and prevent more or worse blood clots.  Never at a loss for humor, Ray just joked about getting shot so many times now in so many places that he's fast running out of room for new shots!  All of you who know Ray know he will try to deal with his journey with humor as much as possible.  We are thankful the blood clots are not in deep veins that could be life threatening and requiring further hospitalization.  It could be much worse!  As for the nurse and her 'discussion' she had with the doctor, I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that one!  I'm sure just the first of many missteps that can be made during this journey, as we're all only human.  We just pray one of the mistakes that may be made won't be life threatening!!  He is in God's hands and care and we have to trust that. 

I promised more information on Ray's disease, how we got to this point, and what the BMT procedure is that lies ahead....look for another posting later this week on that.  I won't plan on updating each of his chemo days this week unless there's a significant reaction or update.  More to come as we get updates on his counts and when we find out if any of his siblings are a donor match.  Each sibling has a 25% chance of being a match, so that's pretty good odds!  We're hopeful as the sibling donor provides the best success rate!  If not, we would aggressively search the nationwide bone marrow donor bank ..but hoping it won't come to that.  Thank you so much to all his brothers and sisters for being so quick to get tested and so eager to help Ray in any way.  This is awesome and he will owe his life to one of them in the months to come!  What a blessing someone will get to be to Ray and our family! 

Have a great week and until next time....we love you all, Teri