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.

Count your blessings. Here is me with mine. Very Merry Christmas to all !

If this is a time of giving for you, may I ask you to receive a gift from me. I'll give you a blessing. Not one of our kids, but a message from Benny Hill (the comedian from the 50's).
"Roses are reddish violets are blueish - If it wasn't for Christmas we would all be Jewish."
He was so right. Jesus is the difference.

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.