Chemo #8: Yes, But...

Down to Bellingham again this morning (good border crossing times for 3 of the 4 crossings).  The neuotrophils had indeed been enlivened by the neupogen, and the numbers were good.  However, just as we entered the infusion suite, we ran into the hard-to-get-hold of doc (who had neither called nor emailed as had been promised).  Ed asked him if he had written the orders to drop the oxaliplatin from today's chemo, and the doc said, 'Not yet; I'll do it now.'  And he did.  (Who is practicing medicine here, I might ask.) 

So the chemo, which now took only about 4 hours (instead of 5-6), proceeded with only the avastin and the 5FU and the leucovorin (and various other minor stuff), including the two-day pump infusion of the 5FU.  Ed says that the decision to drop the oxaliplatin was based not only on the increasing inability of the white blood cells to recover in a timely way, but also the degree of peripheral neuropathy in his fingers and a recent tendency for his legs to not work entirely right: some uncertainty of gait.  Dana (the infusion nurse) nodded her head with this recitation and said this all made sense.  Further, she predicted that without the oxaliplatin the neuropathy would pull back and that the bone marrow would return to work, but both would take awhile...months.  Further, that they could reintroduce the oxaliplatin anytime that it made sense to Ed to do so. 

So the trade-off is made, for now.  He is still getting chemo (the 5FU plus the avastin), but less powerful.  Another CEA measure in a week or two.  And another infusion in three weeks.