Hello.
Well, we've met with Dr Gordon (Jim's Oncologist) on Friday July 1st. Jim will need chemotherapy, much to his disappointment. Fortunately Dr Gordon has had experience with patients with PMP. He said his office gets one case per year out of th thousands his office sees.
Dr Gordon prescribed Folfox, which is a common treatment for PMP. Folfox consists of Leucovorin, Fluorouracil, and Oxaliplatin. There are no specific chemo treatments for PMP, but Folfox is one commonly prescribed.
Jim will need to have a port installed in his shoulder, which will allow for direct injection of the oxaliplatin into his blood stream. Jim has an appointment on July 11th with his Harrisburg surgeons for a consult about the port. It will be installed under the skin and should not hamper Jim's movements, but he's not allowed excessive shoulder movement.
So after the port is in place, Jim will go to the Oncologist's once every two weeks for six months for a three-hour injection of the oxaliplatin (and leucovorin), then a 48-hour injection of the fluorouracil. He will carry the fluorouracil in a carry bag during the 48 hour period. At first a nurse will come and disconnect the bag after the 48 hours, but Jim expects to be shown how to do that himself.
Side effects... The big issue... For three days after the oxaliplatin injection Jim will have extreme sensitivity to cold. He's not allowed cold drinks or drinks with ice because he could have a tense time as his throat contracts as a reaction making hard to breathe. It's a temporary condition, but could cause a panic moment or two... Also, limited exposure to A/C, needs gloves to get things out of the frig... Basically he has to be cautious when around cold conditions.
He may also have diahrea (has medicine to combat that) or nausea (also has medicine to combat that). After a few treatments, he may experience numbness or tingling in his fingers and feet (just what he wants to hear) which will fade over nine months after the last treatment.
Hair loss should be minor and no permanent sterility. There may be times where he doesn't want to eat, so I'll have to keep an eye/ear open for that...
Jim also has a CT scan appt on July 20th, the important CT scan! This will show if the PMP is still present. Dr Sardi said he removed it all, but the CT scan will confirm that. Cross our fingers.
The appt with Dr Sardi is Aug 10th at 1pm, where we will go over the CT scan, blood work, and chemo. Hopefully at this meeting we will have a good idea on whether Jim is PMP-free or what the next step will be. Then if Jim has no reoccurances within 2 years, he basically can put this part of his life to bed and move on (if he hasn't already).
That's all for now.
