Today Andrew was set to resume chemo after a month-long break for radiation. Unfortunately, he instead got a platelet transfusion, as his platelet # was down to just 10. They need it to be roughly 75-100 to treat with chemo. 

The platelet transfusion will provide some protection against bleeding, but the effects are very short term. He has a lot of bleeding risk factors, such as the brain metastases and blood thinners, which is why it made sense to transfuse. He will come back Friday for another blood draw and a CT to re-baseline the tumor sizes in his chest and abdomen. We anticipate seeing growth since he’s been off systemic treatment for a month, and the CA 19-9 (cancer antigen test) has increased from almost 4000 in late June to over 9000 today. 

He may need additional transfusions, and we don’t know when chemo will be possible. We hope sometime next week. This does mean that we have to cancel our family vacation, so we can stay close to NYU and be prepared for treatments.