End of the second to last session of intense chemo

The last news are from a month ago. It's because about until 3 weeks ago Florian's treatment was continuing it's course without any problems as mentioned in the previous posts. He could have a normal life and his treatments weren't too intense.

Three weeks ago he started the second phase of the treatment which he started in January. There are 2 lumbar punctures with a one week interval. along with injections and pills to take every day. He already had these injections in the past and didn't have the best time with them, this medication also makes him nauseous, he vomited 7 times in 1 night. Useless to say he wasn't very hungry. All of that with the usual severe headache at times.

After 2 weeks of this, his red blood cell count, and white blood cells cells drastically decreased. When he went back last Thursday for his next treatment which was supposed to be "lighter", he had to have multiple blood transfusions. He wasn't very happy because these take a lot of time and he hates staying in the hospital. He had to go back the next day and Monday for transfusions. The good side is that he find a little bit of energy for a day or two. Climbing stairs is becoming a challenge and he is always cold. At least this makes one happy person at home, Jacques has a good reason to raise the temperature while I am sweating. Obviously the polar temperatures we are having this winter aren't helping, the average temperature for February was -9°C (I think about 20°F). We have rarely seen the thermometer in the positive (above 32 in Fahrenheit). Today we were at 0°C with a bright sun, people were outside in regular shirts.

This Thursday he has a last injection for this session, this med isn't too bad but he had to again have another transfusion. Normally he should have had 2 based on his red cells rate but he didn't want to stay in the hospital any longer for a second one. He liked less and less the transfusions and receiving blood from someone else.
Since his immune system is once again at 0, they are tried to make sure he didn't catch anything and he is now on antibiotics since he had a sore throat: a very bad memory since almost a year ago his throat started to hurt. He also has a antiviral med since he has big  canker soars. He is pretty tired and isn't eating much. He still has nausea at times and his digestive system isn't working at it's best. Overall nothing new regarding what's happened so far this year but to be honest we weren't expecting hi; to be effected by the chemo so much so we are waiting for him to recover, until next Thursday there is no chemo and we are waiting for the end of this session. The next one will have to start after this one but as usual we will have to wait until he recovers.

Since in January he was doing well he started to get bored. Jacques tried to find a job at Corning. This was unfortunately hard since the legal department got involved and wanted to make sure that there was no for someone with leukemia to work at Corning. Now that Florian isn't in great form it simplifies things. At least even if he isn't able to be full time, he could still go while he is feeling well and not too tired. His doctor has agreed to give papers to certify that he isn't risking anything. So if he still isn't feeling well he will be able to work later this summer if he wants.

We just learned that the next session is a series of chemo which occurs every 2 weeks and he has to stay 4-5 days at the hospital for the series of Methotrexate: 4 treatments (so at least 8 weeks). This wasn't his favorite chemo! The previous blogs can attest to that. This last episode should end around May knowing that we will often have to wait between 2 sessions for his blood cells count to rebuild.

The good news is that after this next session, he is moving to maintenance and will get chemo through pills which will have to be taken regularly. This will be in smaller doses so we are hoping he is going through the hard part now. There is one last step, although not pleasing but he will make it with patience.

Shout out to Flo, hope you get through this harsh part asap and I'll come visit again soon - Raf