Back in Madison

So I've just traveled back to Madison to help take care of my dad's situation. I've spoken with another doctor who came highly recommended from my boss at work (the Chairman of the Department of Medicine and a former president of the American Society of Hematology).

The bad news is, it is definitely stage IV cancer, because they found cancer in his bone marrow. This of course is the highest stage/most advanced form of the cancer. This is scary to think just how bad the cancer is, and how complicated this will be for dad given his health history and the aggressiveness of the cancer.

Also interestingly enough - the chemotherapy is much more intense than I had previously understood. They have dad on a Modified Magrath (CODOX-M/IVAC) regimen for Burkitt's Lymphoma. So this whole time my dad has been in the hospital (the last two weeks) he's been receiving the chemotherapy, what I thought was the whole four cycles over the last 14 days. I was mistaken. This last hospital visit has only accomplished one of the four cycles. So...his chemotherapy will go through February probably, as it goes like this: 15 days chemo - 21 days recovery - 5 days chemo - 21 days recovery - 15 days chemo - 21 days recovery - 5 days chemo. So now the concern has shifted to what kind of toll this will take on dad. I'm not sure that he will even be able to remain living in his apartment. So we are not entertaining the idea of how to transition him to a hospice or nursing home. The problem is that, according to the doctor, there is a 10-15% chance of "fatal complications" from the chemotherapy alone. Fatal complications meaning a severe infection. The chemotherapy is so intense that it will basically destroy his immune system practically speaking. This would make him susceptible to any sort of infection. So we have to make sure that through out his treatment he remains in a healthy environment (something that I don't think he'll be able to maintain without someone being heavily involved).

So this is where we're at. I am in town and will meet with his doctors and my family to try and determine where we go from here. Of course, updates will come.