Last Chemo before Boston

Heath went back into Moffitt last night. They are delaying his chemo until today because his counts are still too low. He will be there until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. The chemo is the same as the last time: Etoposide that they pump through him in one hour each day for five days and Ifosfamide/Mesna that they pump through in 23 hours each day for five days.

Heath had a couple of unscheduled trips to the hospital after the last time he received this chemo.

First, Two or three days after he came home the last time he went golfing with his friend Quintin. I was home working at my desk when he walked in the door. Allan yelled for me to come out because something was wrong with Heath. He was lying on the floor holding his chest over his heart in serious pain. He said he could barely breathe and he had very strong chest pains. In the next minute I called Karis and then I called 911. The fire department showed up about 30 seconds later (more like 2 minutes but there got here very quickly) and took his vitals. The paramedics showed up a couple of minutes later and did what looked like an EKG. She said that he seemed stable and she could not see any signs of a coronary problem. She then asked Heath which hospital he wanted to go to. He likes Lakewood Ranch so they took him there in the ambulance. The doctors ran his blood work and took a chest x-ray and a bunch of other stuff. I can't remember the exact diagnosis but it was some kind of muscle condition or pleurisy. They let us take him home that afternoon. We had called Dr. Agresta earlier while the paramedics were at the house and he said it was probably caused by his blood counts being too low. Later we found out the Heath's new friend Kyle (who we meant at Moffitt because he has the same cancer in his leg) had gone to the emergency room the day before with the same exact problem. Needless to say the whole thing scared me to death because I thought he was having a heart attack. Thanks to our local fire department and paramedics for their quick response.

Secondly, a couple of days after the fund raiser drawing for the car Heath started running a fever. The doctors told us to monitor it and if it went above 101 to take him to the local hospital to have his blood counts checked. Karis got up every hour on the hour that night to check his temperature. The next day she took him the doctor and his blood counts were very low and they said he had a neutropenic fever. Karis had to take Heath to Moffitt where he was admitted. They started him on IV fluids and I think IV antibiotics. His white and red blood counts were so low that they had to give him platelets and a blood transfusion. I was in Moffitt for 3 days while they monitored his counts.

It's very ironic but the day of the drawing for the car Dr. D'Amato talked to the crowd and told them that by looking a Heath that day you wouldn't know how sick he was but he is still very sick and all the crap that he is having to go through to try and cure him is very hard on his body. Like I said before, the trick is to poison his body enough where is kills the cancer without doing too much damage to the rest of him. Someday with places like Moffit discovering better treatments, people with cancer will not have to endure what Heath is going through. It is better today than it was ten years ago. But he is hanging in there pretty good and is staying positive which is all we ask.