It's Tarceva until February 28

The CT from last week showed negative growth on the liver tumours. Negative growth is a term I just made up. But it sounds medical, something like a professional would say like non-small meaning big. Negative growth meaning shrinkage. This is good news meaning it is information that causes non-discouragement. I will continue for another month on the Tarceva. Next CT Scan will be Feb 26. We will continue to pray. Tuesday of that week Jody and I were at the clinic to get the results from Dr. Laskin. Before that, we had an earlier meeting with another Oncologist to consider what our options were to be if Tarceva wasn't working. Dr.Chi is the other oncologist who is running a stage 2 trial. He was interested in having me as a participant. A stage 2 trial is to establish a safe effective dosage of a certain cancer drug on humans not rats. I wanted to meet Sniffy the lab rat to assure him the trial was in good hands because I was going to take over from here. I'm sure he cared deeply. All kidding aside, after the meeting Jody and I were talking through the information about the new trial regime and the possible side effects of the new drug (which is referred to as a line of numbers- it doesn't have a name yet). I was scared but stoic. Jody looked worried but stayed positive. It was just 3 hours before we learned of the CT results but what a charged span of time. We were at a crossroad during that time. Possibly two routes laid out before us to choose from. Outwardly we smiled and were pleasant as we went shopping and had lunch. Inwardly was the rough bouncing ride of emotional reactions. Then a sense of wisdom, what's the big picture here? What can we draw from this? The lessons I'm learning in this health crisis are deepened by the severity of the experience that the ordeal brings. Jesus has me in school with this mid-life road trip. The avenue of the spirit is wide. If I listen to Jesus as I travel my steps are given direction and purpose. The road of the soul is long with many twists and turns. I make my decisions, to take the turn or keep going, run or rest. On the roads and avenues wherever this journey takes me, I am tracking out the time of my life. So far so lucky.

A note from Jody

This is an email Jody sent out today responding to a card we received for our 21st wedding anniversary. It says alot so I think you should read her mail too.

We had a good weekend, we spent two days at Harrison Hot Springs just past Abbotsford. They have really good off season pkgs. Friends of ours gave us a gift to use at the spa. I have never been to a spa!!
Michael enjoyed a massage and both days we had a "couples soak" That's a private spa room with a jacuzzi type tub with no jets, no chlorine just minerals and it's hot, hot, hot. They dim the lights, turn on the music and give you ice water. THEN....leave you alone for 20 minutes!!
It was soooo relaxing.
Today is back to the usual, grocery shopping etc. This week is full of clinic appts. Today Mike had a CT Scan and lab work. Tomorrow we'll find out the results, meet with his oncologist and meet another oncologist. The "next" level guy who runs chemotherapy trials. Depending on the CT results (what this oral chemo has been doing) aside from this CRAZY rash, he may have to decide from what other treatments are available.
Today I just wanted to hide.....I'm sure tomorrow will be worse. These are the challenges we face. We pray for great results but somehow try to prepare for the worst. It has almost been one year since this adventure began. It seems like a lifetime. For the most part, we are positive. Life goes on.
I know if anyone, you both can understand these emotions and struggles well.
Thanks for thinking of us. We'll connect once we have more info.
Have a great week.

P.S. I did receive Jody's permission to publish part her letter!

Anticipation

Here we are at day 21 of the Tarceva cycle. The rash is back on my legs as before but also there are dermatological cutaneous eruptions on my face. Pimples, big whiteheads like I had when I was eating fries and gravy every day from the high school cafeteria in 1977. I am quite sensitive to this and feel anxious about how I look to the world. Not as a 16 year old with a searing attitude eating fries and gravy but now in 2008 I need to put my best face forward and it's covered with whiskers and zits. I may need counseling to help me cope with acne in mid life. Who would I go to for that? Dr. Phil could have me on his show. If you have any advise short of wearing a paper bag over my head to hide my face, please pass it on.
Monday this coming week is the next CT scan. That's easily coped with because people will be looking at pictures of my insides not my pimply outsides. What will be seen in these high resolution x-rays is what causes anticipation. They will give us the opportunity to see any changes positive or negative that may have occurred over the past 6 weeks. The one thing in life that you can always count on is that things will change. I have my thoughts about how this is going to turn out but you never know. Is it good to know that you never know ? I don't know. We have to wait until Tuesday to get the results from Dr. Chi. Yes another Oncologist. Another trial drug comes with another trial Doctor. We meet on Tuesday for the first time and he will tell us what adventures may lay ahead after Tarceva.

Happy New Year !

The new year brings new challenges and new hope. Since December 31st I have been taking the new chemo, a daily Tarceva pill down the hatch into a empty stomach.- Kaboing! - Then the biological party begins. This chemo drug will find it's way through my body to the liver tumours. Here the drug does it's destructive duty by penetrating the cell membrane to undo the DNA of each cell. It messes with enzymes that the DNA use to tell the cell to reproduce. No reproduction - no happy cancer. I'm the same way. What genius. When Tarceva is in town lock up your DNA and hide your enzymes or your life cycle won't make it all the way around. This message hasn't reached the cancer cells yet but researchers have seen cancer build up a resistance so the chemo drugs become ineffective. That would be an unfortunate situation to find one self in so, we are taking Tarceva for 30 days. Just enough to give the liver lesions a nasty sting then float back before they know what happened. The chemotherapy is giving my body the tools it needs to heal itself. The more I research the more I discover that this is true. Other knowledge I've uncovered is that data from many studies has shown that the level of severity of skin rash is connected to the odds of survival. The worse the rash the better survival. I got it bad, that is good. New challenges and new hope.