Day 18, Year 10: Infusion Day
Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Weather: Dew-laden Morning, Sunny Day, High in the 80’s
Location: R Dock, Lightkeepers Marina, Little River, SC
Today was Mark’s first cancer treatment here in South Carolina. In the past, he has undergone chemotherapy and radiation, which we just lumped together and called chemo treatment. But he now having immunotherapy and it sounds a little awkward to say he is having immuno treatment. Both chemotherapy and immunotherapy are done by going to a cancer treatment center and having bags of clear, very expensive liquids infused into your body through a port installed in your chest. That is what happened today, thus the title of this log, ‘Infusion Day’. Evidently this treatment center does not have patients receiving Panitumumab very often, so it had to be special ordered and had not arrived when we got there this afternoon. Mark had to sign a paper saying he would personally pay the more than $3,000 for a treatment if he didn’t show up. So we’ll make sure we are always on time for these infusions! I keep struggling with a way to easily explain what Panitumumab is supposed to do, so I am copying text from the American Cancer Society website here to help both you and me understand it a bit better. “Panitumumab is a type of immunotherapy known as a monoclonal antibody. A monoclonal antibody is a man-made version of an immune system protein that fits like a lock and key with one certain protein. Panitumumab is designed to seek out and lock onto a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is found on certain cells in the body. Some cancer cells have more than the usual number of these proteins on their surfaces, which help them grow and survive. Panitumumab attaches to these proteins and stops their activity, which helps stop cancer cells from growing and dividing. It may also help by tagging the cancer cells to be destroyed by the body’s immune system.”
While Mark was getting the infusion, I left to do a little shopping around. Patsy needs a new coffee table and end tables in the sun room. We have been searching on the internet, but it is really hard to tell about quality without seeing the product. I think I found something and tonight we found the same thing on Amazon much cheaper. And it is Prime item, so we won’t have to pay shipping. Not sure if we will order it or if Patsy will want to go see the set I found and buy it. Furniture is often damaged during shipment and she doesn’t want to have to go to the trouble of sending it back if there is a problem. At some point tomorrow or the next day we will deal with that issue. But tomorrow’s plan is for me to drive Jennifer to Wilmington, which is about an hour north of here, so she can get her car and drive home to Charlotte. Then I will come back to Patsy and Joe’s and resume painting the back deck railing. Mark is going to spend his day on Windbird painting the dinghy bottom and doing other odd jobs. Tomorrow is our last ‘hot’ day for a while. Thursday the temp will be down in the 70’s. By Friday the high will be in the 60’s and on Saturday it will be in the 50’s. So we have to brace ourselves for the chill.
