> The doctor did tell her that she
> should take time off from work but her job does not allow it.

Your wife's doctors are correct that she's going to need some time
off work. I hate to seem harsh and don't want to be an alarmist, but
you should really start looking into other options for financial help
and support in the event your wife isn't able to continue working
during treatment. www.cureourchildren.org has links to resources for
financial support, or your cancer care center may have counsellors
who can help you find local resources. We did Bradley's chemo as
outpatient, but he still had to go to the infusion center every day
for 5 days, and for 4 of those days he was there for 5 hours. He
carried home a "backpack" with saline IV bag, chemo chemical bag, and
2 digital pumps provided by ahome support agency, Medstar. The
saline bag had to be changed every 24 hours, which we had to do
ourselves. The pattern was: a week of chemo, followed by a week in
which counts drop (please tell me they explained the impact of low
WBC, RBC and platelets - if not, ASK NOW!) when the patient is
vulnerable for infection, anemia and poor blood clotting ability. I
gather your wife works at a school; we were told Bradley should limit
exposure to young childred during this week as they are prime
carriers of bacteria. The cycle repeats every 21 days, counting from
the first day of chemo. He wasn't too uncomfortable for the first 2
rounds, but had problems with side effects starting rounds 3 and 4
which required hospitalization. There's no way he could have even
kept his job at the deli counter of the grocery store during all
this. Many people who have experience with more common cancers may
not realize that the chemo for ES is far more aggressive; it's on a
par with treatment for leukemia, and strips the body of it's ability
to protect itself from common germs. Not to minimize the pain of
people with other cancers, but we found (from talking to others and
observation at the infusion center and hospital) that the ES
treatment is both more time consuming, has more severe side effects
and requires more caution, than any of them had experienced. This is
all to say that this isn't the time for heroics, it's time to put
other plans on hold and focus on doing this thing right the first
time so that she'll have a long and full future. I'm so sorry you
both have to deal with this; it's no fun.
- Elizabeth (step-mom to Bradley, 18, dx 5/27/05 ES/PNET in rib, left
lung and chest wall (askin's tumor))