Red Devil

I learned today from a blog hosted by a fellow music industry veteran has for his ill son that the nickname for the chemotherapy drug Vincristine is "Red Devil." I think there are websites where people trade chemo recipes but since
a). I'm new at this and
b). spend 15-24 hours a day in the hospital with it's S L O W wi-fi and
c). Sylvie's cancer is so rare that I'm not sure there are enough kids/families out there to warrant such a message board. More importantly,
d). I'm not a doctor (but I play one on TV- joke)

So I thought you might be interested to know Sylvie's cocktail which was determined by Sylvie's team and apparently pediatric oncologists across the country. I think there's a study at Emory that determined the benefits of using 4 chemo drugs instead of 3.

Day 1: CISPLATIN (Cis-platinum)
DOXO (Doxorubicin or adriamycin)
Day 2: DOXO
Day 3: VINCRISTINE, 5-FLU
Day 10: VINCRISTINE
Day 17: VINCRISTINE

Vincristine is red. It would cause a chemical burn if it touched your skin. Or Sylvie's. The nurses wear protective gear. For 48 hours after chemo, especially the Vincristine, we wear special purple rubber gloves when changing Sylvie's diaper. Note to self: Never ever buy or wear purple gloves.

This is called 1 round of chemo over a 21 day cycle. Sylvie is doing 4 cycles which wrapes up around late April. If her blood counts get low, they will move to a 28 day cycle.

Zofran is administered before chemo to prevent nausea. My sister-in-law, like many pregnant women, had to take this during her first pregnancy to combat extreme nausea. Sylvie also gets a shot of GCSF daily (I am learning how to do this and hopefully Michael will soon or Sylvie will not like me very much) to build her blood count as well as magnesium since the chemo depletes it and Allopurinol. The latter is a drug used primarily to treat hyperuricemia (excess uric acid in blood plasma).