News

Finally, there is news. It’s not good news, so if you’re squeamish, stop reading.

The results of the CT scan on May 9 show that there are more spots on my liver, and the original spots have grown. The Alimta is not working. It is unclear at this point whether the Alimta slowed the growths, or if it was completely ineffective. We’ll never know.

So now I am on 3^rd line chemo, a place that very few people reach. My new drug is Tarceva, available only through special order by doctors. It comes in pill form, and I’ll take one pill a day. I’ll go for a follow up visit every couple of weeks after starting the Tarceva, and later, once a month. After 3 months on Tarceva, I’ll have another CT scan to check on the progress. The major side effects are: rash on the face, neck, back and chest, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and fatigue. (I was told to hope for the rash; the people who get the rash tend to have success.) This drug has been shown to be effective in 20% of the people who take it (women have more success than men), and a very select few have very dramatic results: Asian women who have never smoked. I fit only one of those categories.

If the Tarceva does not work, my next step is to become a lab rat and join in research studies through Duke University or UNC-Chapel Hill. Once again, it’s not helpful to speculate or play “what if”, so I’m trying not to.

If there is good news, it’s that for now anyway, no more IV procedures. And I’ll get to keep my hair.

Thanks for being here. I wish the news was better.

¶ 7:07 PM