Cream Chemo Started This Morning

Now that we have recuperated from the flight home from Honolulu, it was time to start applying the chemotherapy cream to Bob's head and hand. The formal name of the cream is "Fluorouracil 5% Topical Cream." I was instructed to apply it twice a day starting today. This will continue for 6 weeks. We actually filled the prescription on the second of March but Dr. Cho did not want him to be using it while he might be out in the sun in Hawaii. The cream will cause the top of his head and his left hand to look like he has road rash (according to my cousin Marilyn who observed her father, my cousin George, use the cream). Dr. Cho also said that Bob's head would look like one big sore after a while.

There is a 70 to 75% chance that the cream will kill all of the cancerous and precancerous cells on his head and hand - so he may still need to have some surgery on the currently large spot on his head and on his hand but the surgery would be less invasive than if he had gone straight to surgery for the squamous cell cancers on his head and hand.I am supposed to wash the cream off my finger immediately after applying the cream to his head and hand.

On Monday, April 20, Bob will go visit Dr. Cho so that the doc can see how things are progressing. It will be about 12 weeks or so before his head and hand are healed - 6 weeks of cream then 6 weeks of healing according to the doc.