Weekly Update - January 31, 2007

Still trying to figure out the blog thing here - I'm not sure if you are getting the update mail that says I've posted a new entry. This will be the second post in the series - I haven't added anything since the first one yet, so don't fret.

So - on to the news. I received round number 15 last Thursday. I was prepared to make my case with the oncologist to begin adding a new drug with this round - Erbitux. If you will recall, my tumor marker numbers have not been improving and we discussed going two more rounds with the present regimem, getting a new scan and evaluating. After the last set of marker results though, I wanted to just go ahead with the Erbitux now instead of waiting another month or so. (As an aside, my marker number did come down again this week - back to where it was a month ago - I'm baffled.) I was quite pleased though when I started to bring up the subject, he interrupted and said "I think we should start the Erbitux today, but.....". This is an extremely expensive drug - Imclone Systems is very proud of their wonder drug (made famous by Martha Stewart's little insider trading problem), and have made it the most expensive drug on the US market today. As such, in order for my insurance company to let me have it, they need to see my original biopsy results to make sure that I have a favorable chance of responding to it. So, another release form to sign so that he can have the results sent to the insurance company before we can go ahead with the Erbitux. There is some chance that the insurance company will say no on this, but my oncologist assured me not to worry about it - he will persuade them. Paying for it out-of-pocket is not really an option - I would have to either set up a methodical plan to rob every convenience store in the county on a weekly basis (not a particularly good long-term business plan), or plan on a second career in white collar crime ("I am a succesful businessman from Nigeria that needs to invest my money in a US bank and am offering you a fee to use your bank account..."). I don't want to go this route either since I can't seem to make the blog thing work well yet either.

Of course, it didn't hurt that I also brought in a plate full of cheesecake swirl fudge brownies - it never hurts to butter up people with brownies.

I've said before that the waiting room at the treatment clinic has provided me with opportunities to meet people who provide me with inspiration. The flip-side of this is that there are also people there who are scared - really scared. The "deer-in-the-headlights" look is pretty easy to spot on new patients (the big hospital binder that they give all the newbies is also a dead give-away). Last Thursday at the clinic, we ran into a couple who used to go to our church, but moved away a few years ago to enjoy retirement. We had heard that the man had been diagnosed with prostate cancer about the same time I received my diagnosis. We had heard that he had surgery to remove the tumor, but not much in the way of updates on the success of the surgery - we simply assumed that it had gone well and another success story was in the works. Well, that story didn't turn out to be quite so successful, and they were there to get some more opinions on more treatment. He was scared - a look that I hate to see on anyone there, but especially on someone that you know personally. I'm glad that we had a short time to speak with them and let them know that they were in good hands at "our" clinic, and reassured them that they weren't alone in their new fight. They don't do email so much, but I hope to try to help them as much as I can. I think we have a lot to talk about together.

I will post this - please let me know if you get any kind of notification that a new posting is available. Apparently this hasn't worked so well for everyone, so I will send a regular old email to you as well. Sure it's redundant, but I'm determined to try to make this work and get with the hipster blog community.
-bob

Weekly Update - January 14, 2007

Well, this is the first posting on the new blog. I'll be adding more content that will tell my story from the beginning of the cancer roller-coaster ride. For now, I'll start with this week's news. This past Thursday was treatment number 14 - no changes in treatment regimen yet. Dr. Gold (my oncologist) wants me to do two more cycles with the present regimen and then take some more scans to see if there has been any shrinkage in the remaining liver tumors. You will recall that the last scans taken right after Christmas were called a "draw" - no new growth, but no shrinkage either. The tumor marker number that we've been tracking (the "CEA" marker) went up again this time, up to 61 from the 52 that we measured last time. I think that we've seen enough data to think about starting a new drug in the line-up. The next drug will be Erbitux, which is another "biological" agent (a monoclonal antibody) that interferes with epidermal growth factor response (whatever the heck that means). It was the drug that got Martha Stewart tossed in the slammer for insider trading - nothing wrong with the drug, just stupid business practice.

I also had to go back to the treatment clinic today to get another shot to boost my white cell count. They didn't give me the shot yesterday when I went in to get Silent Bob unplugged because we thought we only needed to have done it last time. They called after I left and said that they checked in with my doc, and he said we had to do it again and I had to come back for the shot. The white count was fine on Thursday, but the doc says that it was fine because I had the shot last time. Whatever. I'll talk about it with the oncologist in our next discussion.

Some excellent food for thought this week on my favorite blog - Leroy Sievers' NPR My Cancer site, particularly Thursday and Friday's posts. You can find it at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5497708

Upcoming features coming to this blog will include a "Meet Silent Bob", with pictures of my little electronic buddy, and the sounds that he makes.
-bob