New treatments

I saw my oncologist yesterday and he had been able to speak to a radiologist concerning the tumors in my brain and treatment for them. Since I've already had whole brain radiation, I can't have that again so they were looking at picking them off one at a time. The trouble with that is that there are too many tumors to use this method. Most of them are very tiny - pin pricks - but if you misss even one, there's not much point in having done anything. Also the brain swells around the site where it's radiated so if you have more than 3 or 4, there can be too much swelling for the brain to handle. Because of this, it was decided that radiation was not an option. The only other thing he had to offer is a newer type oral drug that crosses the blood-brain barrier and may have some effect on shrinking the brain tumors. It's called Tykerb and you have to swallow 5 large horse pills a day. I guess it's worth it if it works. They will check my brain again in a month (s)? to see how things are progressing. If things are shrinking, all is well but if not....I'm not sure there will be any other treatments available.

As for my liver - the doctor has decided to try me on a new chemo drug (Ixabepilone) which is similar to one I've already been on that I tolerated pretty well. Of course there are always side effects but we're hoping they will be few and not too bad. It will be given once every 3 weeks. It's so new that none of the oncology offices had it in stock so they had to order some and my first treatment is tomorrow.

My hair was beginning to grow back in spite of the chemo but now I'm told there's a 50% chance it will fall out again. Bummer. It's a little thing but it made me happy to have some hair growing back.

Liver, brain and fevers

Time to play catch-up. Much has happened since I last posted. There was more discussion between doctors concerning the liver proceedure. It was decided it may be worthwhile to go ahead with this but will probably be postponed until mid-October. My mother has a trip to the Philippines scheduled for Oct 1 - 15. There is a huge fine arts center auditorium that will be named after my parents at Faith Academy, the missionary school they taught at for many years. This is a great honor and we are thrilled that Mom will be able to attend the festivities and dedication. She is happy to be going but it's hard for her not to worry about something happening to me while she is gone.

Last week I got results of the MRI of my brain which showed quite a bit more tumor growth. The doctor wants me to have more radiation which I am reluctant to do since it really messed up my quality of life last time I had it done. On the other hand, I've not been told what will happen if I don't have it done. Brain tumors are what generally will get you in the end so I'm anxious to get more information on this. The plan was for the doctor to speak to a radiologist and get back to me on what was said. I never did hear back, so I'll have to put a call in today and start bugging someone for answers. Tomorrow I'm back on chemo.

As if this wasn't enough going on, I've been running high temps lately. Usually I wake up with a fever but it slowly goes away through the day and by evening I'm feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, this last week I woke up with a very high fever of 103.3 and were advised by our insurance nurse to get some medical help. I ended up in the emergency room at our local hospital where they drained my blood for dozens of tests, did x-rays, cultures, etc. In the end I was sent home and told to take Tylenol. Thankfully I've felt pretty good since then.