CEA Result

One of the nurses called today, completely out of the blue, with some amazing news: Karen's CEA is down from 237 to 65!!! This is great news and something we were not expecting. This type of impromptu call is also an example of the great care we are receiving at Overlook and how much the team there takes a personal interest in the patients.

3rd Erbitux Treatment

Karen's doing well. She had her third Erbitux dose today. Dosage days are iffy but the largest side effect is a skin rash which is proving bothersome but tolerable. CPT-11 will be given next week (the 28th) which will knock Karen out for a few days. Other than that the regime is going ok (easy for me to say) and Karen's doing a great job coping with everything.

In happier news; Sydney turned 4 this week and we had a lot of family fun with her. Photos are available on Picasa for family and friends, email us if you'd like the link.

1st Erbitux + Chemo Session

I will update quickly tonight although truly not in the mood. Karen went back on chemo last Thursday (Feb 7th). Her new protocol is CPT-11 (chemo) every three weeks and Erbitux every week. This will continue for 12 weeks at which point a PET and CT scan will be repeated.

Erbitux is scheduled again on Thursday the 14th, (Valentine's Day).

Karen's baseline CEA from last Thursday is 230. Before surgery it was way down in double digits so this is quite a jump. However we must remind ourselves that she's been off chemo for some many months. Hopefully the next measurement will be lower.

Starting Over

The last week has literally been an incredible roller coaster of emotions. Karen had a CT scan last Monday (Jan 28th). Dr. Dan was away at the American Society for Clinical Oncology's 2008 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium all week so rather than wait for his consultation we decided to get a CD from the scan and look at it at home.

We have some experience looking at these things so this wasn't as crazy as it sounds. Unfortunately we were not prepared for what we saw. Karen's entire right lobe shows up engulfed in tumor. After thinking about it for a while we concluded this must be inflammation from her RFA burn in November.

The radiologist's report came through on Thursday and our nurse Nancy walked us through some of the salient points over the phone. Unfortunately this did not sound good at all. One of her tumors which was 5.6cm is now 10.5cms in diameter. The report made mention of increased growth, progressed disease and so on. So naturally we both lost it and have been struggling pretty much all week. I did not update the blog as I just couldn't bring myself to do it and besides, we didn't truly have things from the horse's mouth.

Today we met with Dr. Dan. He was firm and confident as ever and he walked us through the scan results. We learned a couple of things:

1. The radiologist's report was given by taking the scan as a point in time and not in the context of Karen's RFA. Hence a lot of what is seen on there IS due to inflammation.
2. Many of the larger tumors have a "classic" ring of calcification indicating necrotic tissue.
3. RFA does tend to cause more inflammation and hence increased tumor size than other treatments.
4. Karen does still have cancer and it's still growing in there so it's time to start chemo again.
   

He also laid out the new plan; Erbitux and CPT-11. Because she is still healing from the incision, she cannot start back on Avastin but rather than give things a chance to grow, Erbitux will be introduced.

Erbitux is a very new drug [LINK] which works similar to Avastin in that it blocks the tumor from binding to a certain protein it needs. The result is that the tumor shrinks and dies. It's insanely expensive and I need to check with our insurance in case we need pre-approval.

Karen will start chemo (CPT-11) on Thursday (7th). On this plan she'll receive chemo once every 3 weeks and Erbitux (which is technically not a chemo drug) every week. This'll continue for 12 weeks after which she'll have a PET and another CT scan. There are side effects which I'll cover in another post and probably a few other surprises in store but we'll deal.

Net-net we've had some very hard, very dark days this week but we are still kicking and remain confident that Karen is getting the best treatment possible.

Just an Update

Hello to all. Just a quick post to keep people "posted." ( I am soooo funny!) I am having a ct scan done on the 28th of January. I will review the results/report on the 5th of Feb. with Dr. Moriarty. Regardless of the results of the scan, I will be starting chemo the following week.
I have been feeling great and even started doing a bit of exercise again. I am ready to dive into some juicy chemo and shrink these suckers!
God bless.

look at me I'm blogging!

Happy 2008 to everybody. Sorry there has been such little blogging going on but things have been crazy ever since I went into surgery. I just wanted to write a bit about how much better I am doing. I was able to come off the wound vac almost 2 weeks ago and I think it is safe to say my incision wound is now healed completely. I am also feeling so much stronger and am getting my appetite back to full swing. It has felt great to do "crazy stuff" with my kids after dinner and just tickle, roughouse and in general go crazy. I have felt much much better these last two weeks.

We go to see Dr. Moriarty on the 21st of Jan. From that date we will be scheduling scans of some nature. Once the scans are done and the reports read and reviewed, Dr. Dan will have are our plan. I am most likely going right back into chemo which is fine. Whatev. eh? And that's all we really know at this point.

I want to continue to thank everyone who is praying for us. I continue to pray for all who are praying for me so we should all get our bases covered. But seriously, God is the supreme physician and He determines my fate. He is bigger than cancer. I have to diligently remind myself of those things all the time because the last few months have felt very bleak to me. But I just try to plow through all that negative crap and go froward. But all I have, we have, is God. I need Jesus on my side. Jesus didn't create disease or negativity. But he did create me, and as I learned in my 2nd grade CCD class "God don't make no junk." I think of that phrase all the time now and actually spurs me on. I won't stand for this and I know He won't either.

Thank you all for your support love and prayers. We deeply appreciate it.

New Year Post

Karen's doing well. A Happy New Year to all for 2008. We hope everyone had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas holiday.

I have not posted in a while and it's time for an update; Karen's incision opened as I mentioned in a previous post, just about an inch or 1.5 inches, not bad for an 8" incision.

Chemo cannot start until the wound is closed. We are being visited every two days by a nurse and Karen is wearing a VAC or Vacuum Assisted Closure device. Essentially a pump about the size of 3 VHS tapes side-by-side. It is attached to the opening by a long line of tubing. The pump maintains a negative pressure on the wound by sucking every few mins. That stimulates blood flow and so on. It seems to be working despite the incredible inconvenience.

We got a short-notice appt tomorrow with Dr Moriarty to discuss who know what. There's not much he can say until the next round of scans and they have not been scheduled just yet. Another couple of weeks and we'll have a plan to move forward.

The waiting is not easy but we continue to receive strong support from all around us.