Two-Week Gap

[meatie]

My mother had her fifth infusion this week. But her sixth infusion has been scheduled for the week of 1/12/15 instead of 12/29/14 because the oncologist is going off on a three week vacation. Does anything think delaying one infusion a few weeks would be a problem healthwise?

[sjring]

Meatie,

Not really, I will usually slip in an extra week off once in every 6 round cycle. In the most recent upcoming case, I didn't want to start dosing on New Year's Eve so we pushed the whole thing off by a week. In October I took an extra week to get away with my wive for a few days while I was feeling well. I think as long as it isn't happening all the time, it's fine as long as your onc agrees.

[Don.in.Dallas]

My onc readily delayed my 12th (and final!) FOLFOX treatment a couple of weeks (a 4-week gap between 11 and 12) to accommodate my vacation schedule. My next treatment is January 5 instead of December 22. He feels that delays in the last 2-3 cycles do not adversely affect the efficacy of treatment. Otherwise, I had 1-week delays between cycles 4 and 5, and between cycles 5 and 6. Since then, with dosage reduced to 80%, there have been no missed treatments.

[weisssoccermom]

Besides vacations/breaks, etc. that are purposely planned, you need to understand that it isn't uncommon for a patient to skip one or even two infusions because of low blood counts, a nasty case of the flu, etc. Remember that these things happen to patients all the time. They may not happen routinely to any one given patient but they do happen in any onc's practice and the doctors/nurses are well aware of these situations. My point is....don't worry about it. These extra two weeks will give your mom some much needed rest and allow her to 'recuperate' a little longer and be ready for the next infusion. Your onc's office wouldn't have scheduled it this way if they weren't comfortable with it. Tell your mom to relax, enjoy the holidays and start up again in the New Year.

[DBF]

Two of my treatments were delayed due to low platelet counts. My oncologist wasn't really worried about the time off. I hope your mom enjoys the break.