Thanksgiving and Chemo updates

Tom's chemo was bumped up by a day this past week (Tuesday 11/25) in hopes of feeling better for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, in what is becoming an annoying trend--we had issues with the insurance company 😖 We arrived, had lab work done, and did a partial office visit while I was chatting with an insurance representative on my cell and the prior authorization office at the physician's office was also calling them.  The office here in Des Moines also had to call University of Iowa (they were recently purchased) to get an estimate of cost for the medications before they would mix the chemo.  Apparently it's a requirement of their pharmacy, fun fact it was about $7k.  

Luckily we did get final and full approval for the visit and chemo infusion, but it took about an extra hour and half.  One of the medications is bound to albumin (so it's milky white) which is why it's so pricey...and then takes longer to mix.  However this new chemo includes 2 medications (gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxe) and they take 30-60 minutes each, so it's a MUCH quicker day for the on site portion and doesn't have a take home pump.  So far the side effects seem to be similar or slightly less than the previous version--still fatigued, some GI symptoms, and anticipating hair loss.  But no cold sensitivity and his numbness/tingling in his fingers has been improving.       

We did get a chance to have Thanksgiving with Tom's mom along with some family friends of ours.  Tom was pretty worn out and even had a bit of a temperature spike that evening; however was back to baseline the next morning and has been there since.  Pretty sure he just overdid it on Wednesday and Thursday.  

On Friday, we got an update from our Mayo team.  All the diagnostic results from the abdominal washing and unexpected liver biopsy were all good!  No evidence of any spread and the tumor markers were either the same as last time or less.  We will continue the plan of chemo--2 weeks on and 1 week off until we return.  His next session is this week on 12/3.  We continue to hope for uneventful weeks and good doctor visits.   

I almost forgot to share that Vivian did bring home a bit of a surprise for Thanksgiving--a $$$ electronic baby for her Child Development class.  It's been a lot of years since we've had a crying baby and car seat in the house, but "Carmen" spent the weekend with us.  It has sensors for diaper changes, bottle feeding, positioning, and burping.  It was definitely an experience--I was helping feed the baby while Viv was eating...or napping 😂