Thursday, June 12, 2008

In Limbo

I wanted to let you all know that I'm now on the full doses of the regimen that Dr. Huh had me on when my marker started to rise. My blood pressure is better allowing me to start up the Avastin again and the funding came through for the Xeloda. So, I'm up and running again with a full regimen of treatments. For a couple of weeks I was only taking one of the 3 components of the regimen. This is good for now.

You may wonder why I'm still on a regimen that allows my marker to go up. Well, I'm
glad you asked. We are sill trying to get funding for the clinical trial medicines. We can't change until the trial is completely set up so we stick with this treatment until we find out if we can do the trial or not. In other words, this regimen is better than no regimen at all while we wait. The prayer request is for God to reveal the next step, whether a trial or already proven and known regimen.

For now you can pray for some struggles that have surfaced since my marker has risen. I have very labored breathing. The simplest task can tax my breathing. Now how am I supposed to keep up with the little boy in this condition? I also have pain in my side (the liver). If I over do it I'll become very uncomfortable and it takes some pain medicine and a lot of rest to get past it. Spencer thinks it's his superior boxing skills that causes the pain. I can't have him growing up believing this. Also, today I stayed home from work because of all of this and then some. I found it hard to keep my food down today. This could be a passing thing for today or something I'll have to deal with in the days to come until we figure out our new course of action. Pray for these things to subside so I can continue to funtion.

Well, I just wanted to update you all on these things so you could be praying for us. We appreciate all that you do for us in you prayer efforts. I'll update you when I know more.

God bless,
Warren and family.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Changing regimens again ... I hope!

Hey, all! Sorry to not update for so long. There has not been a lot to tell up until now. I saw the Doc on Monday and he told me my marker is rising again. It has gone from 56 to 80. So this regimen he has had me on is failing and we have to move to a new regimen ASAP.

Dr. Huh wants the new regimen to be a clinical trial. The problem with that is the medicine for the trial will cost me out of pocket because it is a pharmacy item. Anytime I get my medicine from the pharmacy I have to treat it as any other item and pay a co-pay amount every time I refill for the next treatment. Unfortunately cancer medicine from the pharmacy costs thousands of dollars and it sends my co-pay into the hundreds of dollars. So, Dr. Huh's staff is trying to find a way to fund the prescriptions for me. This is where the prayer request comes. Pray that we can find funding for my cancer medicine so I can participate in this clininal trial.

I am doing okay. Dr. Huh says that the cancer is still stable even though the marker has gone up again. Currently I'm still on the same regimen until we find out if the clinical trial will work out or not. One of the cancer medicines has caused my blood pressure to rise into dangerous territory so he took that medicine out of the regimen. My chemo pills are on hold until I get cleared for funding for those as well. Maybe God is trying to tell us something about this regimen ... GET OFF OF IT. IT'S NOT WORKING!!!! Of course I could be wrong. I am neither an Oncologist or God so it is hard for me to form an accurate oppinion.

As you can see there are many things to pray about concerning my cancer and treatments. In the mean time I do feel okay and the sickness is not a problem with this regimen so that's a blessing. My biggest problem is fatigue and I did pick up someone's cold over Memorial day weekend. Thanks to whoever you are that shared the germs. May God bless your armpits with the fleas of a thousand camels.

Thanks to all of you who pray so faithfully. You are the difference makers in this battle. God bless you all and I'll keep you posted on the clinical trial medicine.

In His care,
Warren and family.