Jim's Next Treatment

Jim called the doc yesterday, just after they had opened and SHOCKER! They immediately put him in the books to meet with the doc. He went in for a 12:40 appointment (didn't see her until after 1:30) and she ordered a new treatment. As expected, Jim will get immunotherapy when we return from PIB. Specifically, he'll be taking Keytruda (more on that in a bit). Prior to his first treatment (on July 17th) he'll go in to get a chest port put in. This is because he'll need an IV so often (every three weeks for his infusion) and Jim is definitely a hard stick (though they'd do it regardless). He was a bit concerned and bummed about the port but after the first week, it seems he can resume normal activities. People can have ports for months and since the doc said this treatment would go on for about a year, there you go. Now, they did say that about the last treatment Jim had (that he'd be on the combo of drugs for a year, year and a half) but as we all know, he was unable to tolerate. I wonder about the Keytruda.

If you don't know anything about immunotherapy, what it is meant to do is boost the body's natural defenses to fight cancer. It uses substances made by the body or in a laboratory to improve or restore immune system function. The problem with it can be that along with the body fighting cancer, it can also attack healthy tissue and/or organs. In terms of side effects, the Keytruda "common" side effects are: fatigue, cough, rash, shortness of breath, loss of skin pigmentation, rash, itching, loss of appetite and nausea. The more serious side effects, however are: inflammation of lung tissue, holes in the intestines, hepatitis, kidney failure and lots of other stuff that scares the shit out of me. Considering how long it takes the doc to get back to us when things have gone wrong before, well, you can imagine my trepidation. On the positive side, however, the results that Keytruda has on advanced melanoma patients is pretty impressive. It's even put some people in remission which is unheard of in terms of melanoma. So here's hoping! I'll certainly update when things begin.

So Jim's still working at Christian Moerlein and last night, he brought home 4 cases of their beer. Apparently during the bottling of these cases, the machines didn't fill the cans all the way so BAM! We luck out. Of course it's the FC Blood Orange IPA and it's good, but I'm not the biggest IPA fan. I do like this one, however but I can only drink one and I'm done. Well, Jim's happy and the neighbors love it so they'll get to partake as well. YAY JIM! Now if we could just get him back over to the Hershey's offices again!

And that's all I've got for today. I started shampooing the carpets yesterday so I'll finish that today. I also will take a bike ride in a bit (this time in the neighborhood) and later today (this evening) my neighbor, Lauren, will come over to watch the final episodes of this past season of Walking Dead. Happy Tuesday! Time for breakfast. Later!