Day -4: First Day of Etoposide

Dad Stats:
Most recent temperature: 98.2F
Most recent blood pressure: 115/64

Dad and Vic woke up somewhat groggy this morning after a night typical of any hospital stay--lots of disruptions! Shortly after waking, they met the third doctor on the BMTU team, Dr. Salzman. Vic described her as a very cheerful, knowledgeable lady. She will be on service this week, and so we will see her when she rounds each morning.

Dad was still feeling pretty good this morning, just more tired than usual. As you regular readers know, he finished his last dose of Busulfan yesterday, and today was his first dose of the second chemotherapy drug, Etoposide. Etoposide can cause sudden drop in blood pressure, fever, and malaise as side effects, and so Dad's vital signs are being carefully monitored.

Me, Dad, and Vic hanging out in Dad's room

I arrived around noon to switch places with Vic. They were very happy to see me because I brought brownies :).

Today after lunch Dad began to experience some nausea. His nurse (Jessica) had anti-nausea medicine on-hand, and it helped him enough that he was hungry at dinner time (although when the food came he didn't feel like eating it--he forced it down anyway though!). Nausea, mouth dryness, and fatigue are the primary side effects he is experiencing so far. Mucositis is the main problem that we're concerned about right now, and the team is doing some interesting things to prevent that. For instance, Dad has to gargle a very bad-tasting mouthwash (which contains nystatin, an anti-fungal), and they expose his oral mucosa to infra red light once a day (which they tell us has recently been demonstrated to decrease the severity of mucositis).

We had a relatively uneventful evening, we just watched the news for a bit and then put in a movie (The Wind in the Willows). There were lots of phone calls today from family and friends--thank you all for those!