• Registered: Sat, 13 Jan 2007
  • Posts: 11

Topic: bob's wife three treatments down

Bob just finished treatment number three of gemzar infusion on tuesday. He is still feeling really bad. As far as side effects go he has nausea, vomiting and other. I feel the doc is doing all he can to make this as easy as possible, but it is still hard to watch him and not be able to help much.
    I have a question today, I have Bob's test results for liver panel and can't quite understand what I am looking at can anyone put it in layman's terms ? I will only give the numbers that are way off normal.
   His numbers read as follows ; alka phos 996, ast 109, alt 110, bilirubin total 110, glucose 130, albumin 3.0, globulin 5.2, a/g ratio 0.6. There are other numbers but these are the worrisome ones. If anyone can explain I would appreciate it very much.
    Bob did have to have a procrit shot before treatment this week. The only other thing he has going on right now is fever that is regular as clockwork in the evening that can go up as far as 102, but responds to motrin. He is still not eating much and it is hard to get him to drink enough to replace fluid loss. He really is trying, but food just makes him ill.                                  Thank You all For being here,
                                                             Rhonda

  • Registered: Fri, 29 Sep 2006
  • Posts: 466

Re: bob's wife three treatments down

Rhonda,
   My husband has had his bloodwork done the past few days so I compared  your husbands  to what is normal. Bob's liver enzymes are high ecspecially the alkaline phosphatse but that can be caused by a lot of different things. The other levels don't look too far off normal except for the bilirubin. That should be around 1.5 or less. My husbands enzymes are also high and the docs don't seem too concerned except when the bilirubin goes up. Then he becomes noticeably jaundiced. The crazy thing is that these test results vary wildly fom day to day sometimes. It all depends on what medications you are taking, what you have eaten etc. I suggest you look up liver enzymes on the internet and read as much as you can. You can find out a lot by doing that. Also I get the results of all of his bloodwork and then try to compare them so maybe I can figure out what is causing things to be high. Good luck- I hope this helps a little.  Mary

  • Registered: Sat, 28 Jan 2006
  • Posts: 23

Re: bob's wife three treatments down

Hi Rhonda,

The internet is loaded with information but I also bought a medical dictionary, "Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions, 7th Edition".  It's very convenient to have esp. when my husband is watching tv and I could be there sitting with him, dictionary in hand.  I don't have to be in the computer room every time I need to learn a new medical word esp. when he brings home all the copies of his tests.

Take care,

Edith

  • Registered: Sat, 13 Jan 2007
  • Posts: 11

Re: bob's wife three treatments down

Thank you for the information. I hope that your husband's are both doing well. I find it hard to live life a day at a time, but this is what this disease has forced us to do. I wish I could beleive it gets easier, but everything I read tells me different. I wish you both the best.
                                        Rhonda

  • Registered: Sat, 28 Jan 2006
  • Posts: 23

Re: bob's wife three treatments down

Hi Rhonda,

Talk to your oncologist to find the best naseau meds that will work with your husband.  There's companzine that is suppository-it helped my husband esp. on his few months after diagnosis because he was throwing up a lot.  Now he is on Reglan, he takes it 30 min. before a meal.  Our oncologist have always advised us that whenever my husband gets a fever of 100.2, we have to go to the ER, never give him anything to lower his fever down until a test has been done to find out what's causing it.  I know it's really hard but hang in there.  My husband had gone through the same.  There are times that it gets better.  Take care of your self.  If you need to talk more, you can e-mail me; hosk1226@comcast.net
Take care.  Edith

  • Geoff
  • Senior Member
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  • Registered: Sun, 19 Mar 2006
  • Posts: 66

Re: bob's wife three treatments down

Rhonda

Obviously the Gemzar is largely responsible for his nausea but in my own experience a high bilirubin won't help.  My own eating didn't recover until they got the bilirubin down below about 40 (I had an external drain and later a metal stent).  Are they making any efforts in this direction ?

Geoff