End of August

Here we are....at the end of August.  Before I forget....Happy Birthday to my sister Marion!

We all had a terrific time last week at Misquamicut and we thank my mother for allowing us to stay with her.  Beautiful weather (it rained only one day) and lots of fun and relaxing time spent with family and friends.   Ed and Dan went deep sea fishing one day.  And the rest of the time was hanging out at the beach, playing cards, or just hangng out.  I'll post pictures later.

Right now I know some of you are wondering how Ed's CT scan went on Monday.  We met with Dr. Bowers this morning and Ed was scheduled for treatment afterwards.

First the CT results...

• New spots in the lungs (5 mm).
• Spots showing growth 1-2 mm
• Center of chest unchanged
• Lymph nodes upper left: 1-1.5 mm growth
• Liver: no change
• Lymph nodes in abdomen: little growth
• Summary:  a little growth; not a lot
• Dr. B: "don't like it"

Time for a new plan of attack!  We discussed various treatment options including some new drugs, experimental drugs, Mass General clinical trials, etc.  Dr. B. wants to discontinue the Oxyplaten since the cold sensitivity is lasting longer than it should.

So we decided on the following:

• Xeloda:  every day/2x a day (Ed has been taking this 7 days on/7 days off); on this schedule he can stay with the pill form otherwise it would be administering this via a 46 hr pump
• Irinotecan:  this was one of the original drugs Ed was on; this is the drug last fall that caused Ed to lose his hair
• Avastin:  this was also one of the original drugs Ed was on but caused protein in his urine so he had to be pulled off it before it caused kidney failure.  Dr. B. will need to continue to monitor this closely.  If protein in the urine becomes a problem, we'll have to look at Erbitux again.

Yes, this is the combination Ed started with.  We hope it will be effective with no serious side effects.  And since we need to get pre-approval from the insurance company, Ed did not receive a treatment today and is now scheduled for next Thursday.  The good news is that this means he won't feel (more) tired/sick over the labor day weekend.  And since Ed has been tired and achy pretty much every day, we're hoping the changed treatment plan will help him feel better overall.

Time will tell and I'll keep you posted.  For now, though, just one day at a time.