Today was an IV drip of chemo and a shot of another kind of chemo. The Vincristine drip was fine. His labs/blood looked fine. They were ready to give him the L-Asparaginase shot. Now like I said, they have these procedures to check things. Even if they've checked them a hundred times, they still have to check again. And it's a good thing.
Before they give the L-Asp shot, they test for allergies. They draw a circle on his arm with a magic marker and inject just a tiny bit under his skin there. Then they wait. If it swells up or gets bumpy (or turns black or whatever) they know not to give him the rest of the dose.
KD's had this before. Last month he had L-Asp shots a few times. No problem. Today he swelled up inside that circle. They couldn't give him the shot. Apparently he's developed an antibody to the L-Asp. Wacko!
No big deal I guess. L-Asp is intended to starve the cancer cells. All cells need an enzyme (asparaginase) in order to replicate. Normal cells can make their own. Cancerous cells need to draw it from around them. The L-Asp prevents the cancer cells from absorbing it. So they can't replicate and eventually die. Yay!
We'll see what the docs cook up for the next visit to make life fun :-)
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