Hello,
Well, we have completed Pat's sixth week of treatment. To date she has been through 30 Rad Tx and 8 Erbitux Tx.

This past week the fatigue really started to set in plus we are still having the ongoing nausea/vomiting to deal with. The rad-onc increased her Fentanyl patch to 50 mcg, so that may be comtributing to the nausea. Also, this past week Pat had some heavy duty diarrhea. Previous weeks we were dealing with constipation and now the opposite.

Another thing I have changed for her this week is adding Saturday/Sunday hydration with Zofran. The additional two days brings us to a seven day per week regimen at the infusion center so we were already pretty used to the routine. From my experience in helping my sweetheart through this thing, I can strongly recommend getting all the IV hydration possible.

So, we have Erbitux on Monday and three more radiation treatments ending on Monday and then the treatment portion is done. Then on to road to recovery. I expect it will be at least two to three weeks before we see much improvement. In fact I expect her to get somewhat worse since the effects of the radiation/Erbitux are cumulative. I plan to continue her hydration after Tx for as long as she feels she needs it.

Pat is looking forward to the day she can get the peg tube removed and have an actual meal. I'll be very glad for her. After treament is over and she has recovered we're going to take dance lessons and learn the salsa. It should be great fun.

Our thanks to everyone for their input and encouragement. We will continue to trust the Lord no matter what comes our way. I'll give another report in a few days. Thanks again.

Walt