[stanford_status] Sept 8th and 9th Chemo Completed

[John R Larsen]

Hello Everyone,

Stanford, Joyce, and I returned yesterday evening from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) 
after a two day stay.  The staff got a real kick out of Stanford's outfit and took some pictures for their 
picture board.  Look at the last two thumbnails on this page:

http://larsen-family.us/pictures/2006/cd5/2006_09_09_-_Stanford_chemo_at_DHMC/index.html

Shortly after we arrived Stanford mentioned that he was hungry, having skipped breakfast because he 
was busy making sandwiches for lunch.  He took his IV stand with him to the microwave to make 
popcorn.  The battery in the IV pump wasn't holding a charge and started beeping so he came back in 
the room to plug in leaving the popcorn cooking, and cooking, and over cooking, and burning, and 
generating lots of smoke, and tripping the smoke detector, and auto calling the fire department, and 
making the day somewhat more exciting than expected.  Stanford said he was only following the 
directions on the popcorn, "4 minutes on high."  There is now a sign on the microwave stating "Do not 
leave popcorn in the microwave unattended".

Stanford received two chemo drugs this go around.  The first wasTaxotere (generic name docetaxel). The 
other drug was Cisplatin.  Both were administered through his port.  He was also given several anti- 
nausea drugs.  He never really did feel nauseous at all much to the amazement of all the staff.  It is very 
unusual.

As reported a week ago, the tumors on his liver have grown.  We found out Friday that there are other 
tumors in his pelvic area.  This the first we had heard about those, but apparently they have been 
showing up in the scans.  Those tumors haven't grown at all so their thinking is that the previous rounds 
of chemo may have helped with that.  Even though there is a lot of disease in his liver, the good part has 
been working overtime and keeping up just fine.

At DHMC they have a weekly "Tumor Board" meeting attended by staff oncologists.  Stanford's case was 
discussed in this meeting.  They also consulted with Dr. Grier of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  There 
isn't a protocol to follow now.  They are treating his case as a carcenoma.  Stanford will go back to 
DHMC in about two weeks for another CT scan.  We'll know more then.

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers,

John

_______________________________________________________
John R Larsen <john at larsen-family.us>
http://larsen-family.us