Karen's doing well. She met with Dr Moriarty today. Essentially Moriarty read the radiologist's report from Karen's latest PET/CT scan and her overall status is "stable". An amazing result considering where she started from.
It's definitely time to consult a surgeon again to see if surgery is an option and this time we're letting Dr. Dan drive that process for us. We will likely meet with him again in another few weeks. Until then Karen continues the regime of Erbitux as this seems to be keeping things in check.
It's always a stressful and overwhelming exercise whenever these scans come up and this time has been no different. We may not always be conscious of the stresses we're under but they are there nonetheless and no doubt will lift over the next few days.
Showing posts with label erbitux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label erbitux. Show all posts
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
6th Erbitux and The Circus
Karen's doing well. We awoke the other day to find this huge oak on down after some high winds. Amazingly hardly any damage done our neighbor's house. 
Don't see that every day.
Karen's at Overlook today getting her 6th does of Erbitux. She's tolerating it despite severe dry skin on her hands and some bad skin cracking and rash etc..
Yesterday was a great day. I took the day off and Karen and I took Sydney and Ethan to the circus. I don't have many pics as they didn't allow flash photography. Here's a couple we snapped off before being scolded.
As it turns out I had actually worked with two of the clowns in the circus and knew them from a previous life. I hadn't seen them in about 14 years so it was quite surreal. The kids had a terrific time and loved every minute of it. I think by the time the show was over they were ready to pack of and join the troupe.
This coming Friday is Good Friday and Karen will be getting chemo + erbitux. On Sunday I am traveling to London for a brief business trip but will be back Wednesday night to help out.
It was a lot of fun to go out as a family and we are aiming to plan many more such outings over the summer.
Don't see that every day.
Karen's at Overlook today getting her 6th does of Erbitux. She's tolerating it despite severe dry skin on her hands and some bad skin cracking and rash etc..
Yesterday was a great day. I took the day off and Karen and I took Sydney and Ethan to the circus. I don't have many pics as they didn't allow flash photography. Here's a couple we snapped off before being scolded.
As it turns out I had actually worked with two of the clowns in the circus and knew them from a previous life. I hadn't seen them in about 14 years so it was quite surreal. The kids had a terrific time and loved every minute of it. I think by the time the show was over they were ready to pack of and join the troupe.
This coming Friday is Good Friday and Karen will be getting chemo + erbitux. On Sunday I am traveling to London for a brief business trip but will be back Wednesday night to help out.
It was a lot of fun to go out as a family and we are aiming to plan many more such outings over the summer.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
5th Erbitux Treatment
After another tough week, Karen's starting to feel better. She had chemo on the 28th and normally is feeling a little better by the following Sunday. This time the nausea, tiredness and crappy feelings hung around all week. She's been having massive cramping and gas among other problems. On the 6th she had her 5th Erbitux treatment. This has been tolerable but caused a huge rash and lots of related problems. The pain in her side was written off to just things settling down. Her liver function is normal and it is not enlarged by any means.
To cap things off, she ended up in hospital yesterday unexpectedly due to de-hydration. A few hours hooked to an IV solved that.
Surely all this indicates the drugs are working and we can expect great scans in another 8 weeks?
Since she's on CPT-11, her hair has given up the ghost and is falling out in determined fashion. I don't think even with her thick mane we can avoid shaving this time around, although Karen's full of surprises.
Despite paying our life insurance last Jan, they called this week and said we were late by over a month and that a LAPSE notice had been placed on our policy. What a bunch of balony! Of course our payments are well documented so they had to admit the inaccuracy.
In other financial related news, Karen has already met and exceeded our yearly out of pocket maximum yet our medical insurance continues to bill us. I need to call them.
You know what though? Life goes on, we are full of resolve, our marriage is as strong as ever, the kids are a tremendous joy to us and we're going to the circus as a family on Thursday. So screw cancer.
To cap things off, she ended up in hospital yesterday unexpectedly due to de-hydration. A few hours hooked to an IV solved that.
Surely all this indicates the drugs are working and we can expect great scans in another 8 weeks?
Since she's on CPT-11, her hair has given up the ghost and is falling out in determined fashion. I don't think even with her thick mane we can avoid shaving this time around, although Karen's full of surprises.
Despite paying our life insurance last Jan, they called this week and said we were late by over a month and that a LAPSE notice had been placed on our policy. What a bunch of balony! Of course our payments are well documented so they had to admit the inaccuracy.
In other financial related news, Karen has already met and exceeded our yearly out of pocket maximum yet our medical insurance continues to bill us. I need to call them.
You know what though? Life goes on, we are full of resolve, our marriage is as strong as ever, the kids are a tremendous joy to us and we're going to the circus as a family on Thursday. So screw cancer.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
4th Erbitux, 2nd Chemo Treatment
Karen's been having sharp pain in the right side of her abdomen the last 24hours. This is similar she says to the pain experienced when she was first diagnosed. We are not sure but are hoping this is shrinkage or some other good effect of being back on chemo.
Tomorrow she'll go for the 2nd chemo treatment but 4th Erbitux treatment for those keeping track. This'll knock her out for a good few days but overall is still less of a burden than the original regime (another "easy for me to say").
We'll ask Doctor Dan what the pain means and perhaps he might have some suggestions although with only external exam it's very hard to be sure what's going on.
Tomorrow she'll go for the 2nd chemo treatment but 4th Erbitux treatment for those keeping track. This'll knock her out for a good few days but overall is still less of a burden than the original regime (another "easy for me to say").
We'll ask Doctor Dan what the pain means and perhaps he might have some suggestions although with only external exam it's very hard to be sure what's going on.
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