[stanford_status] Condition steadily improving

[John R Larsen]

Hello Everyone,

It has been a week since Stanford's last chemotherapy treatment at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center 
(DHMC) in Lebanon, NH.  Stanford has steadily improved.  Last Tuesday (Oct 3) on his own he stopped 
taking the Zofran for anti-nausea and oxycodone for the pain.  For several days now he has had no 
nausea.  Pain is very low or nonexistent.  It used to be that taking a deep breath hurt a lot.  Sneezing 
and hiccups were around 7 on the 10 point pain scale, and burps were very painful.  This has improved to 
the point where he just kind of notices a little discomfort in his side when these events happen.  He 
sleeps about 12 hours a day, but his appetite and energy level have increased.  

This is only empirical evidence that the latest chemotherapy treatment is working, but we are very 
encouraged by his improving condition.  The current plan is that Stanford will return this Thursday (Oct 
12) for a repeat of the lastest treatment, which consists of:  90 minutes of Avastin, 2 hours of irinotecan 
and leucovorin, and 46 hours of 5FU.  Assuming his condition remains the same or improves, the first 
three infusions will be done outpatient at DHMC, and the 5FU will be done at home by a home infusion 
nursing agency.  About a week after that another set of CT scans will be done.  That's when we will find 
out how effective the treatment has been.  The hoped for result will be no further growth of tumors and 
hopefully evidence of shrinkage.

Thanks to all of you for your continued encouragement, thoughts, and prayers.

John

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