Scan Number 2

The results from my scan were positive. The tumors have all shrunk, but are still present, and there are no signs of it spreading beyond the right lung.

Now I am on the clinical trial drug (Yervoy) exclusively, without the chemo. I had a dose of it on Wednesday, Feb. 19th and will have the next dose on March 12th. After that I will be in the Maintenance Phase of the trial. This will involve getting the Yervoy every 9-12 weeks, as long as I continue to respond.

I am also planning on having radiation in the middle of April as a preventative against the cancer spreading to my brain.

The only negative thing to come out of the scan is that I am developing Pneumonitis. This is an inflammation of the lungs. It is seen as a side effect of Yervoy in less than 1% of people taking it. Yippee for being special!!! I am being treated with Steroids for this and will have another scan on 2/27 to see how the Pneumonitis is responding.

All in all I feel great and am able to go about life like I did before I was diagnosed. Looking forward to the weather getting better so we can get outside! Take care.

Chemo Complete

When I last left you I was getting ready for the fourth and final round of chemo. I am happy to report that I made it through the last round and rang the completion bell.

I was down and out for about 4 days after chemo this time. I think it was a combination of the chemo and the cold I have been battling for about three weeks. I spent the entire day Saturday sleeping. At one point Ellana did ask if I was dead! Apparently I let go with a massive snore and she laughed and said I was just sleeping. Very funny!! I am feeling much better now.

This week I have a scan on Monday to see how everything is looking. I will post the results but probably will not have them until late in the week.

Assuming the cancer is still not progressing I have two more rounds of the clinical trial drug on Wednesday, Feb. 19^th and three weeks later. I will have ten rounds of radiation over two weeks in mid to late April. That is a preventative measure to keep the cancer from moving to my brain.

All the news for know keep your fingers crossed for good news this week!

Third Chemo Cycle

OK, so it turns out I am a terrible keeper of a blog! I do not update it often enough. Not promising anything but I will try to do it more often. Let me get you caught up on the last couple of weeks.

I had Chemo the week of January 6^th. The trial drug was also administered with this cycle. This was, by far, the worst cycle to date. I did not feel well for a good week and a half (nausea, at one point a drink of water almost made me sick!! Please laugh at that because it is funny). In addition to not feeling well from the chemo I also came down with a terrible stomach pain on the Monday evening and Wednesday morning the week after chemo. I have never felt any pain like this in my life! I ended up going to the emergency room both times. While there I was introduced to a great little drug called Dilaudid. Let me tell you, this takes the pain away immediately. It is so good I requested it on the second visit within the first 15 seconds of seeing the Doctor. I am not a healthcare provider but I am guessing that sent up some red flags!

They were unable to find anything wrong with me after running blood tests, a CAT scan, and an X-Ray. I saw my Oncologist the next day and he seems to think it was a reaction to a medication I was taking. It could be that it has something to do with the trial drug.

Speaking of the trial drug, it is possible that I am just getting a placebo rather than the drug. However, I have been having some odd symptoms since my last treatment that were not present with the previous two. I have developed a small rash in a couple of places (possible side effect), had flu like symptoms (possible side effect), and the stomach pain/ gastritis (possible side effect). We are not getting too excited but it seems that I am experiencing a few of the side effects of this drug. Hopefully I got it!

Today I went for my pre-chemo blood test to see if my white cell count is low. Miraculously, for the first time since I started chemo, I am fine. No Neupogen shot for me this week! We are very happy.

So I start the last round of chemo next week on Monday. I will get another scan in the couple of weeks after that to see what progress has been made.

Hope you are all well. Talk to you soon.

Great Scan Results

I will start with the best news we have had in awhile. I had a CAT scan this week and the results were great. The cancer tumors around my right lung have shrunk in response to the Chemotherapy. There are no signs that the cancer has spread anywhere else. All in all this is the best news we could hope to hear. So for now the course of treatment will continue as planned. Yipee!!!

We definitely had an interesting Christmas. It started with Sandi and the kids getting the stomach flu on Christmas Eve. I was sent into quarantine and not allowed to help or clean anything up. Sandi took care of the kids and herself. It was a big job with everyone vomiting for about 12 hours. She proceeded to clean all bathrooms multiple times to try and clear out the germs. To date it has paid off. I have not come down with the flu. On Christmas we went out for Chinese, not bad but a different sort of Christmas. It was great to be together and we are thankful for that.

I am scheduled to start the next round (3rd cycle) of Chemo on Monday. I had a blood test yesterday to check my White Blood Cell count. Again, it was very low so I got a shot yesterday and today to get the count up. I should be ready for Chemo on Monday assuming the SNOWPOCALYPSE does not shut down Indianapolis.

During this cycle of Chemo I will be given the clinical trial drug Yervoy (or placebo) in addition to the normal Chemo drugs Cisplatin and Etoposide. The clinical drug is also added in the 4th cycle. After the fourth cycle chemo ends, but the clinical trial drug continues every three weeks.

I also wanted to share a couple of our Christmas pictures. Thanks to Molly Connor ( www.mollyconnor.com ) for taking these on very short notice. We are very happy with how they turned out.

If you can not read the shirts, mine says Screw Cancer, Sandi's says Beat Cancer, and the kids say Fa La La La La. We thought they were appropriate.

All for now. Hope everyone had a nice Holiday Season.