Joe Reports His Progress

I received this update from Joe today.

"Hello everyone. As you know I started my chemo treatments on July 29th. I had three pre-medicatipns to help with side effects and then had three different chemos, Taxol, Carboplatin, and Avastin. Six hours of laying with an IV in my arm. That day, Tuesday, I felt pretty good.

The next day I had some tingling in my fingertips, stomach discomfort, and generally tired. These symptoms continued and the stomach discomfort really overshadowed all other side effects. The following Tuesday I went for my weekly wellness visit. I had lost nine pounds (what a tradgedy because you know I don't have it to lose) and my white blood cell count was down to 1.5. Normal for men is 4-10. This was because of the chemo.

They started me on five straight days of Nupogen injections which stimulate your bone barrow to produce more white blood cells. Two days later, Thursday, I started getting chills and when I called the doctor he told me to go to the emergency room which I did and was admitted. My white cell count was down to 1.0 and everyone around me had to where masks.

They said I was "neutropenic", which means that I was very susceptible to everything because of my low white cell count. They saw a small spider bite looking spot on my left thigh and thought that was the source of the infection. For the next couple of days I had x-rays, CT scans, blood work, etc. to rule out other possible infections. The spot on my leg grew larger but reacted well to the intravenous antibiotics which were many and often changed by the day. They said that the spot was a staph infection. My white blood cell count went up to 13.8. All test came back negative for other sources of infection. My red blood cell count is a little low but they decided against a transfusion at this time.

I was released on Monday. We meet with my oncologist tomorrow to figure out where we go from here.

Thank you all for your continued concern and especially your prayers. Love to all."