My son, Pete, will finish his 3rd day of chemo (7 hr infusion) today. I was not present yesterday when he spoke with the oncologist, but when he came home last night he told me that he will begin a new chemo treatment starting Monday.
The new treatment is Rapamune (aka Sirolimus) and is administered orally on a daily basis. There has been significant indication that this drug, normally used to prevent rejection following transplants, has shown some promise in reducing/inhibiting sarcoma growth. It is also capable of passing through the brain-blood barrier, so it can reach cancer cells that have migrated to the brain. Most other chemo molecules are too large to pass through the barrier and are therefore not effective. It seems that at this point in time it is in a type of trial status, but I'm not exactly certain of that nor of what stage it is at. I did some research/reading and touched base with some folks well informed on sarcomas last night and this new therapy seems very promising.
Thank you, again, to everyone who is keeping Pete in their thoughts and sending good wishes.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Chemo - 1 Down, 2 to Go - February 17, 2010
Pete and I headed out to the oncology office a little after 9 yesterday morning. There was less than an inch of snow on the ground but it was still snowing and the traffic news was reporting accidents so I wanted to make certain we had plenty of time to get to the 10 AM appointment.
We arrived just a bit ahead of schedule but it seemed that things in the office were a bit behind, so we didn't actually see Dr. W until about 10:30. Pete had not gotten any call about the MRI report (re: pain on the left side in the area of his scapula) so we were pretty certain that it was not some new nasty that had suddenly croppped up. Dr. W explained that one of the lung tumors had increased in size and was impinging on nerves within the thoracic cavity. Though I have no medical training whatsoever, he confirmed my suspicions of what was causing the discomfort. Pete may experience some relief as the chemo begins shrinking the cancer.
When the doctor finished, Pete went right into the chemo suite to begin the day's infusion.
It had been snowing very steadily and as I drove home I wished I could have taken some pictures. This was a very light snow of tiny flakes and it looked as though someone had taken a giant shaker and sprinkeled powdered sugar over the whole landscape. The trees were especially beautiful.
I picked Pete up at the end of the day. He was tired, but was feeling pretty close to normal otherwise. Today we head back up for day 2.
We arrived just a bit ahead of schedule but it seemed that things in the office were a bit behind, so we didn't actually see Dr. W until about 10:30. Pete had not gotten any call about the MRI report (re: pain on the left side in the area of his scapula) so we were pretty certain that it was not some new nasty that had suddenly croppped up. Dr. W explained that one of the lung tumors had increased in size and was impinging on nerves within the thoracic cavity. Though I have no medical training whatsoever, he confirmed my suspicions of what was causing the discomfort. Pete may experience some relief as the chemo begins shrinking the cancer.
When the doctor finished, Pete went right into the chemo suite to begin the day's infusion.
It had been snowing very steadily and as I drove home I wished I could have taken some pictures. This was a very light snow of tiny flakes and it looked as though someone had taken a giant shaker and sprinkeled powdered sugar over the whole landscape. The trees were especially beautiful.
I picked Pete up at the end of the day. He was tired, but was feeling pretty close to normal otherwise. Today we head back up for day 2.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Blizzard Changes Chemo Schedule - February 10, 2010
Pete and I drove up for his scheduled appointment to resume his chemo treatments that had been put on hold but we were both wondering what to expect because of the dire weather prediction for another blizzard. We had just come through one that lasted all day Saturday into Sunday and covered us with about 20 inches.
We began by meeting with Dr. W, who gave us the disappointing but somewhat expected report of the CT scan that showed there are new lesions on his lungs and existing lesions have increased in size. I was hoping that nothing would have changed, but since the chemo schedule had been so disrupted, it was not surprising to hear the report.
Because this treatment requires 3 consecutive days of 7 hr long infusions each day we were faced with the following options: 1) go ahead and begin day 1 and then report to one of the hospitals for day 2, as the oncologist's office was anticipating closing due to the weather, and then figure out where to go, office or hospital, for day 3 depending on what that day's weather dictated; 2) reschedule all 3 days.
The weather forecast was so bad Pete chose to hold off and resume chemo next week, and it looks like he made a very wise decision. The storm right along the coast where we live had begun as a wet mix, changed to snow (accumulations of about 5 to 6 inches when I got up this morning), then back to a wet mix since about 8 AM. Away from the coast it's been all snow, but the weather reports continue to predict falling temps everywhere, including the coastal areas, with snowfall and wind increasing through tonight with snow totals of a foot or more for us by the time the storm moves out around midnight.
Schools are closed, officials are telling people to stay home, our governor has declared it a state of emergency. All this and we're still trying to recover from the last blizzard that dumped about 20" of snow on us on Saturday.
We began by meeting with Dr. W, who gave us the disappointing but somewhat expected report of the CT scan that showed there are new lesions on his lungs and existing lesions have increased in size. I was hoping that nothing would have changed, but since the chemo schedule had been so disrupted, it was not surprising to hear the report.
Because this treatment requires 3 consecutive days of 7 hr long infusions each day we were faced with the following options: 1) go ahead and begin day 1 and then report to one of the hospitals for day 2, as the oncologist's office was anticipating closing due to the weather, and then figure out where to go, office or hospital, for day 3 depending on what that day's weather dictated; 2) reschedule all 3 days.
The weather forecast was so bad Pete chose to hold off and resume chemo next week, and it looks like he made a very wise decision. The storm right along the coast where we live had begun as a wet mix, changed to snow (accumulations of about 5 to 6 inches when I got up this morning), then back to a wet mix since about 8 AM. Away from the coast it's been all snow, but the weather reports continue to predict falling temps everywhere, including the coastal areas, with snowfall and wind increasing through tonight with snow totals of a foot or more for us by the time the storm moves out around midnight.
Schools are closed, officials are telling people to stay home, our governor has declared it a state of emergency. All this and we're still trying to recover from the last blizzard that dumped about 20" of snow on us on Saturday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)