In The Spirit Of Full Disclosure

And just like that graduation celebrations are over and Tate is back in the clinic for an exam and chemotherapy. Tate’s ANC is only 670, with a goal range of 750-1500, which was unexpected since he is only taking a half-dose of the daily at-home chemo. If his ANC is still on the low end at his next appointment, his doctor may decrease the dose even further.

The Nurse Practitioner said she and Dr. Williams were reviewing Tate’s file together and realized they gave him an extra lumbar puncture with Methotrexate this cycle. She said that even with all the people that review his treatment protocol to make sure things like this don’t happen, somehow everyone made the same mistake. In the spirit of full disclosure they wanted to tell us they scheduled and performed the extra procedure. I appreciate that she told us; it isn’t something I would notice, but I am 100% positive Greg would have figured it out. He is constantly researching treatment and comparing it to what Tate is getting and would have noticed when appointments from one 3-month cycle did not match the next.

Tate was in a great mood today. It was fun to be around him.

Tate’s weekend antibiotic Bactrim has been replaced with a once-monthly IV transfusion of Pentamadine. His medical team made this decision because sometimes switching the medications can help keep a patient’s ANC in range. Last month Tate had a minor reaction to the drug, so they treated him with Hydroxyzine (a drug similar to Benadryl) before giving it to him today, and it made him sleep all afternoon. When he woke up, he said his face felt tingly and his lips were bigger than normal. It’s a little scary to think he could be having an allergic reaction to yet another drug but not be awake enough to tell us about it. On the other hand, the drug that made him sleepy was given proactively to treat a potential reaction so maybe everything worked out exactly how it was supposed to.

Tate also got his 25% dose of Vincrisine today and starts his 5-day steroid pulse tonight. Steroid weeks are the worst! They make Tate feel terrible all the time.