Modern Medicine Magique

Hey all, it’s Sunday night and everyone is already asleep… so I just had a little hankering to geek out for a few paragraphs on the specifics of Nick’s treatment, as some of it is actually pretty interesting.

As we mentioned before, Nick will receive 3 chemotherapies.

The first one, Xeloda, is a pill. (Cool, eh?) Nick started this one on Friday. 4 horse pills in the morning and 4 at night. He will take these pills for 14 days in a row. He says that he feels fine so far, just a little more tired…

Xeloda is interesting because it’s not an active chemotherapy, until you gulp it down. It then travels to the liver where it is converted into its active, butt-kicking form called 5-FU. I won’t state the obvious about a chemo that has a phrase like “F U” in it. But, I will say… the great thing about Xeloda is that once it is converted into its Chuck Norris form, it doesn’t have to travel very far to get to the tumor because it’s already on top of it, right there in the liver. So, that is just - great design. We love Xeloda.

Rumor has it that when Xeloda is used with Gemzar (which is infused through the port) it’s good to give the Xeloda first, just for a few days, to sort of… prime the pump. This apparently makes the Gemzar more effective once it’s added on the 4th day.

So, Nick will get his first infusions of both Gemzar and Taxotere tomorrow morning through his awesome and no longer tender port. He will only have 2 infusions per cycle (two Mondays in a row, then one off).

So… everyone is resting up for tomorrow, when all three warriors will finally be on board, ready and willing to wreak some havoc on Nick’s liver hogging tumor.

To quote Nick, “Somebody’s got a case of the Mondays…”

Ha! I think he will do great.

Lots-o-love to all yo healthy livahs,

Michal