Update 2.3.07

Good Morning –

Well, since the last email I sent regarding my Mom we were able to get into the Cardiologist earlier. In fact we spent last week in Houston for testing and appointments. We are headed back to Houston bright and early Monday morning for another week in Houston.

My Mom met with the Cardiologist and everything was good with her heart. No problems. She had an echocardiogram done and everything was healthy. She then had her CT Scan and X-rays this past week too. We got the results yesterday. Her liver and lung spot were stable…no change. Her tumor on her pancreas had grown about 6mm and her tumor marker was at about 313. She has been off chemo since late November, so it was somewhat to be expected that the tumor had grown. Her tumor marker is not as high as it was prior to her first round of chemo but is getting close to it.

She is starting a clinical trial on Monday for chemo. This drug is not FDA approved and she will be the first one in this trial at this drug dose level. It requires her to take 4 pills a day, two times a day. We have to stay in Houston for a week for safety reasons and blood work. The first day (Monday) she will take the pills and then have her blood drawn at different times over 8 hours.

Other people have taken this drug before but not at this dosage level. The main side-effect people have reported is diarrhea and not all patients have gotten it. Although each person could have different side effects. This trial will require us to go to Houston every week for blood-work at least for the first month, and then I think the trips are less after that. It is a 2-month cycle (meaning she will be rescanned in 2 months to see if it is working). The good news is to that if it does work, then she could stay on it. Apparently some trials only allow you to be on the drugs for a certain amount of time, even if it works for your type of cancer. She will stay on the drug as long as her cancer is stable or shrinks.

So we hope that this is the drug for her and the side effects are minimal. Thank you for the continued prayers and support. I will let you know how the week goes.

Just a side note, Derek is training again with Team in Training for another marathon. He has signed up to do the Rock n Roll Marathon in San Diego in June. Derek is a fundraising captain/mentor this time. He will not be fundraising this time, but helping others achieves their goals of fundraising and finishing the marathon. They started practice today with 3 miles, and Derek said it was COLD this morning. (As I was sleeping in the WARM bed!!) I am very proud of him and his commitment to doing this again and helping with the battle against cancer!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Take care.

Love –
Crystal