kvetching up

 Entry 1     9:03 a.m. Jenny is away at VM to do blood work, in advance of the chemo regimen which she begins today. The chemotherapy is called GTX, and consists of 3 drugs: gemcitabine, a taxol derivative, and capecitabine. The capecitabine is in pill form, and is taken daily. She also receives an infusion once a week for three weeks. Then she has a bye week, no pills, no infusion. It is 12 weeks in total. The treatment regimen, which I believe I discussed in an earlier journal entry, has been around for a very long time, since before the breakthroughs that increased the 5 year life expectancy to 2.9 percent. 2.9 percent.  Gemcitabine has been the go to drug for treatment since the 1990s, but doesn't do much, truth be told. It isn't completely ineffective, but most people die at 4.5 months on the regimen, so, it doesn't do much. 5-FU with cisplatin is the wonder treatment, that works until it doesn't. The alternating between the gemcitabine regimen and the...

  Entry 1     8:54 a.m. Willow has learned to fly, or so she thinks.   Last night, as Jenny was laying on the sectional, Willow came around the corner, jumped and cleared the back of the couch. She pulled off a perfect four-point landing.  She literally stuck the landing. Unfortunately, by stuck I mean she landed on Jenny's chest where the needle from the chemo pump enters the port to her vein.  Jenny didn't see it coming. Neither of us did.  Jenny, after pushing off a clueless and cuddly behemoth (its like cuddling Wm. "Refrigerator" Perry as a toddler at this point), doubled over, more in fear than in pain.  But finding her port was secure, she wss still understandably shaken and also angry. She went to bed. This morning, she woke to find the chemotherapy drug FolFox leaked and leaking all over her clothes, and the needle completely out from the port. She bagged the pump and needle, and called Dr. P. The best laid plans, and all that. ...