Obvious questions...

Meg asked in a comment on the last blog: "At the risk of asking something obvious... how long is each round of chemo? How many days/weeks?"

I think the obvious questions are the ones people might want to ask... at least that's what I tell students. Answer: Ben's on his third type of chemo. First it was CHEOP (an acronym named after the drugs involved) which is given intravenously for a couple of hours every fortnight. But that didn't seem to control the lyphoma. Then it was PACE-BOM, a two weekly cycle, again given by i.v. for a few hours, with PACE one week and BOM the next. But again it didn't seem to be effective enough and when infections delayed the chemo the lymphoma advanced rapidly.

So now it is "dose adjusted EPOCH" which is stronger than the previous regimes. This one involves giving the drugs continuously for four days and then three or four weeks to recover enough to start again. So Ben was on the chemo from last Friday for four days. Now he just needs anti-viral drugs every 12 hours. The idea was that he would visit the hospital twice a day for that but with his total exhaustion and some pain from the operation it seems better if he stays in hospital for the moment. The chicken townhouse will have to wait.