let the whirlwind begin...

"Ok, this is what I know so far; I see the Surgeon about putting a "Port" in on Monday. Dr. Ball hopes it's in by Thursday, and I should start a Chemo treatment called I.C.E. by the 29th. The possible hold up is Moffitt, I'm waiting to find out if they need to see me before treatment, or not. The treatment will be 3 days of chemo, off 21 days. It's a very rough chemo (of course what chemo isn't?), rougher then the last one I did. Hopefully only 2 treatments (fingers crossed) Then a bone marrow transplant, which I will be my own donor. I'll keep you posted." ~ Gil


Gil finally got his appointment with Moffitt: 9:30 am on February 7th; this is for a bone marrow evaluation and....not sure what else, but they suggested I come along and that he should block out about 4 hours for whatever it is they are going to do.

Right after that he got phone call from his oncologist that he needed to be seen right away: 11:45 friday morning (today, Jan 18th). That's where the above information comes in. He has an appointment on Monday, jan 21st with Dr. Berry regarding getting the port put in; looks like Dr. Ball is planning for things to get started pretty quick now. ICE refers to the chemo regimen of Ifosfamide, Carboplatin, and Etoposide that is administered over a series of 3 days, then 21 days off; he is hoping for 2 rounds. Then it seems this will all be followed by a bone marrow transplant - of his own marrow. Not sure how that works, but we'll find out!

The problem is, Dr. Ball wants to start chemo before he is seen by the Dr. at Moffitt, which I'm thinking will alter the marrow before it's tested or harvested, so we have a call into moffitt to check on this.

BTW - still in search of a new host family for Danielle. We thought we were all set with a family and she was ready to move this weekend, but they changed their mind.