TARCEVA !

What is Tarceva ?
insect larvae? - a comic book hero? - a small Greek Island ? - no - no - and no. Tarceva is one of the names of the new chemo drug that I will be switching to. The other name is Erlotinib. Yes, we are in a time of transition with the treatment of lung cancer. The CT Scan from last week showed cancer still growing in my liver. So that's what we got to do - whack the tumours in the liver. The last treatment of cetuximab was on Dec. 5 and I will start treatments with Tarceva on Dec. 28. It is a pill that I will take every day for 30 days.There will be a CT booked towards the end of the 30 days to mark the progress (please pray here). As it stands now, I will not be receiving chemo drug treatments from Dec. 5 to Dec. 28 while we switch the drugs. A nice break. The change over time gives my skin a chance to recover, because guess what a possible side effect is from Tarceva - skin rash. Ha ha ha , that's funny. Not really. Actually, the old drug and the new drug are similar in many ways except Tarceva attacks the cells from the inside of the cell. How ? It just does. TARCEVA!! to the liver tumours and beyond !

Lung Cancer Support Group

The Lung Cancer Support Group meets at the BCCA on the last Wednesday of every month. The group is the first ever in Vancouver and has only met 3 times. It brings together people with lung cancer and people supporting others with the disease. We are all so different. We come from different backgrounds, we are different ages and we are in different stages of the disease and treatment. But, I believe we all have so much in common. Fear, suffering, the need for support and the desire to help others. Not that we talk about it openly (yet).
With each person at a different place in their treatment, questions and insights on topics discussed vary. One fellow is quite candid with what he has to say, "Side effects? Everything I eat tastes awful. I'm losing weight." He is about 80 years old and he was accompanied by one of his daughters. I get the feeling from something he said, that cancer has changed him. What he said was so simple and sincere, "Love one another." Hearing that from this hard old man brought me to tears.
There is a woman who finished treatments 18 months ago and is now enjoying an early retirement. She is living with only one lung (as is another younger guy in the support group). The retiree shared from her perspective, how important a positive attitude was to her healing. She referred to herself as a cancer survivor and someone said that we are all cancer survivors. That's when the hard old man said "We don't let the non-survivors in." We all laughed heartily.
The topic for last weeks meeting was - How do we cope with cancer? I'll quote the hard old man "It's just another challenge for me to face and deal with."
I'm different from the general population in the support group because I have an appetite and don't feel nausea too badly. I have a serious skin rash (which is now causing swelling in my legs). Hows the rash? You may ask. It's ... kind of ... like ... um ... AHHHHHHHHHH! Get this skin off of me !
So, if you ask me that same question and you get a different answer, chances are that I'm being socially aware. Which is a good thing.
The ongoing saga of Meekings and ICBC has a development. We have replaced one van with a 2003 Mazda MPV. Jody and I are pleased with the purchase. As soon as the snow clears we will be back at it, hunting for a 2nd car. Please pray for the rash and the car.

Moving on

So both vans were written off by ICBC. Now the hunt begins for replacement vehicles. They are out there somewhere in the world of craigs list and the buy & sell. We need to find the right machine at the right price from the right people. Mean while cancer does not wait for us to engage it. We need to maintain vigilance in prayer and wisdom of response. The last thing Dr. Ho did for us before she left for her maternity leave was to postpone the chemo treatment from last week to let me catch up on dealing with the rash. That, along with antibiotics seemed to work, the rash settled down enough for me to appreciate a sense of well being for the time being as a human being. Write a comment at let me know how you are being.

Not a Chemo Moment - A Distraction?!!

This has nothing to do with my treatment or anything to do with cancer. However, the guy who is at the center of this event is letting his handicap show. Just an hour after falling asleep on Thursday night Jody and I were jolted awake by the sound of a serious car crash. It happened on our street just outside our window. It was a big one. The kind where you think someone has been hurt. My first response was just that, I need to do first aid. I was out of bed and put on my son's shoes that were left at the top of the stairs (I tell him not to leave his shoes there at least once a week!) Then I went out on the street to see how I could help. As I left I called to Jody to bring the phone, she was 45 seconds behind me. That 45 second head start put me on the sidewalk just in time to see a sharply dressed young couple walking along. As they passed me, he slurred his question that identified his present state of mind, "Did you see that?" in a boyish excitement. I said, "No, I was asleep in bed." They seemed to be in a hurry to go up the street and I was anxious to see inside the wrecks that were in front of my house to count the injured. I shined my flashlight in the F350 Pick-up truck no one there. I shined my flashlight in the 91 Jetta which was under the F350. No one there either. Then it occured to me as I watched the two turn the corner onto Larch St. they were the driver & passenger of the truck.
We all have to live with our own decisions and we have to live with the decisions that other people make. Some people may decide to use the other vehicles at the side of the road to keep their big truck on the road. This actually happened. The driver caused damage to 12 vehicles parked along 2 blocks of our street. Of the 12, 3 were damaged quite significantly. 2 of those were ours. Then, the next decision this driver had to make was where to park the truck. He found a spot on top of the Jetta on the boulevard. The police helicopter and canine unit found the couple six blocks away.
Later, we were informed that his license had been revoked previously. Wonder if the truck is stolen? Any insurance? He was also definitely intoxicated.
I am praying for this fellow. that he would now start to make smart decisions. And what about that girlfriend - if she sticks by him after this - he better be making very smart decisions.

This Wednesday, we will meet with our ICBC claim adjuster. Our vehicles are now in storage with ICBC and being inspected.
Please pray that the adjuster will make fair decisions on our behalf.

Here are some photos.

This is our Voyageur. My guess is that the F350 bounced off the back of it.

This is our Sienna with the front wheel of the F350 laying beside it. Why did the wheel fall off?

This is the Jetta under the pick-up.

Lung Cancer Education Day

November is Lung Cancer month. As part of this, some doctors who are connected with the BCCA, organized the Lung Cancer Education Day. Apparently, it took 2 years to put this event together. The day was very informative and beneficial. The people who shared their knowledge and experience were 2 respirologists, 2 oncologists, a radio oncologist, a thoracic surgeon, a dietition, 2 nurses and 2 lung cancer patients (one of which was me.) Yup, I had a gig on the weekend! My bit was important. Comic relief. Each one of the speakers was very informative but not so entertaining. I was asked to share my perspective on cancer treatments and the clinical trials. I tried to do that but there was just so much comedy that needed to be pointed out. People showed their appreciation with heart felt laughter and some asked when my next speaking engagement would be. We will just wait and see.
What I learned from the professionals was that they are looking to the studies and trials to teach them more. There is a derth of research being done on lung cancer because of a stigma. The old school thinking is lung cancer is caused by smoking so stop people from smoking and stop lung cancer. I don't smoke. The other patient who shared at the Education Day never smoked and was very cautious of second hand smoke. There is not much information out there on lung cancer. When you look at the statistics, lung cancer is more deadly than prostrate, colon, and breast cancer combined. Shocking. The nature of lung cancer is that it doesn't show symptoms until it is well advanced. I was in stage 4 when I was diagnosed. That means the lung is the primary site but there is cancer in other parts of the body. This is what makes it deadly. More research will help in early diagnosis.
One of the organizers of the event was one of the oncologists who spoke.This was Dr. Ho. If you have been reading my blog, you may remember Dr. Ho is my oncologist. She will be moving on to a higher calling within a couple of weeks. She will be missed at the clinic but we all understand that there is one person who needs her more. Happy parenting Dr. Ho.

CT results received October 30

The pleasure is mine to tell you of the results from the latest CT scan October 26. It's all clear as mud. Over all the cancer is stable. There are no signs of cancer in my brain. The tumour in my lung is dead and draining into my lung which is allowing me to cough this thing out. The liver has many tiny spots on it and two larger ones. Of the two, one they have been marking. This one is .5 cm bigger and the other one just looks bigger. I will continue taking chemo therapy once a week. However, I will be taking only one of the two drugs that have been part of the trial and have another CT in 6 weeks. Then we will see if things are better or worse. We will know which drug was working. Now we can see why it is called a trial or a study. Practising Oncology is all guess work. It has to be. How can any study account for the complete physiological make up of just one of God's creatures? There are just too many variables. Maybe a tulip or a bug but not a human being. Then there is the accounting for the human soul where He is with us. This power drives the the whole machine of body, mind and spirit. How can a study be able to track and interpret the data from this? That's why we study and make educated guesses. I am completely supportive of the BCCA and have a positive outlook for the future. My immediate plans are to allow God to heal me and the chemo to do it's work. My main concerns are the side effects which still continue. Like I said, clear as mud.

Just the Facts

Do you remember this TV cop show from 1967 ? Dragnet. Let's all chant the theme - Duumm Da Dum Dum. The beginning of each show they would say "These are actual events" and in the show they would always ask for "Just the facts."
I want to give just the facts of the actual events of my cancer treatments. I will start with the events since February. So here is the time line of our adventure. February 10th I began coughing up blood after playing hockey. February 12th we first saw the lung tumour on a chest xray. Dr. Miller (GP) called it a mass, a possible fungal growth. He referred us to Dr. Fera, a lung specialist who did a bronchoscopy and took photos. I have copies if you would like to see a tumour up close, just remind me next time you are over. Dr. Fera saw in me more than a lung infection so he referred us to Dr. Finlay, a thoracic surgeon who was to cut this thing out of me along with half or whole of my lung. A date was set, Monday March 5th. The surgery never happened because Dr. Finlay discovered from a CT scan that there were spots on my liver. He scheduled me for a liver biopsy. With the results in, Dr. Finlay confirmed I had cancer and referred us to the BCCA. On Thursday March 22 we met our oncologist, Dr. Ho. She had the initial job of telling Jody and I that the type of cancer I had was non small cell carcinoma in the 4th stage. Which means it was not curable but treatable cancer. This was a seriously crappy day. I did realize that something needed to be done and there wasn't time for whining. March 30 was the CT scan that revealed 3 brain tumours. Still yet, another crappy day. The upcoming chemo was put on hold and we were moved over to the radiation department of the BCCA. We met Dr. Grafton who set me up for 5 treatments to the brain. Once radiation treatments were completed we waited two weeks before we started the weekly chemotherapy of carboplatin and gemcitabine. April 14 was head shave day for me and my boys and a couple of neighbours, Kayla cut hers short. After one round the chemotherapy was interupted by the lung bleed of April 20. This was followed by 5 radiation treatments to the lung. A CT scan on May 25th revealed that the tumours were growing even during chemotherapy. June 2, I was given a three day course of I.V. antibiotics to treat an infection in my arm. (Probably from an I.V.) June 11, a bone scan showed no cancer in my bones. FIRST GOOD NEWS since February! We started the chemo trial of Pemetrexed (kills cancer cells) and Cetuximab (prevents cancer cell reproduction) on June 20. The rash of August began on the 1st. This slid into the pneumonia of '07 which I haven't totally kicked yet. The results of a CT scan from Sept 7 showed the lung tumour smaller, the brain tumours were undetectable and the liver tumours were .5cm smaller or as they said, stable. The next CT is on October 26 - I hope this good news continues. On October 17, I finished the Pemetrexed part of the trial. By November our "Trials" nurse and Dr. Ho, our oncologist will be on maternity leave. They have both been wonderfully supportive and very knowledgable. We will miss them both and hope we will have a good connection with their replacements. The side effects continue. I want to keep this rash under control. Please pray for the side effects to lessen and that we will have a healthy winter without the flu bug. I expect to be getting weekly chemo treatments of Cetuximab indefinatly as long as I am benefitting from it. These are just the facts of actual events.