Wonderful news!

So as many of you know by now I got wonderful news Thursday!!! Looks like the meds are working and the tumors on my lungs are shrinking!!! WOooooooooot!! The doctor showed us my scans from March and my current scans to show us the difference in the sizes of the tumors. I'm telling you I was so excited!!! For some reason i just didn't have a good feeling about this trial, but it proved me wrong. All the prayers have been answered. I ask for everyone to continue to pray the meds continue to work. If ya'll remember the last trial I was on worked for a little while but then the tumors started growing again. I was so excited I couldn't call everyone fast enough. lol My clinical nurse said my trips to see them will be less since I'm in the 3rd phase of the trial. That will help a lot because it's so expensive. Not much else is going on. Brayden just finished his 4th grade year. We got his scores back on his TAKS. He missed 3 on the reading and ZERO on the Math!! I'm so proud of him. Hope everyone has a fun, safe summer!! Remember to protect yourself and your kiddos from the sun!!!

A little ER visit

Had a little scare today. I think I scared myself more than anything. But when something new comes up, or I have some new symptom it just really freaks me out!! I started feeling yuck at work this afternoon. Came home for lunch and my heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest. So I took my blood pressure and it was okay, but my heart rate was like 111. Well my heart rate goes up like that quit a bit, so it didn't bother me too much. Well I took my temp and it was 100.9!! Okay RED LIGHT!! Since day one I've been told if I have a temp I need to be looked at because temps usually mean infection somewhere, and thats a BIG no with someone in my condition. So I called my Clinical Nurse and she advised me to go to the ER to get checked out. Blood test were run, and x-rays were took. The PA that was working the ER called and talked to my nurse and went over everything. They decided I was okay to go home. My nurse in Houston said that it's probably just side effects of the pills I'm taking. But it was a good idea to go get checked out just in case. Kind of irritated me because I wasn't aware that a temp and the chills could be a side effect. If I would have known that I probably wouldn't have freaked out so much. Think my heart rate was a steady 140 when I went in. They filled me full of 2 bags of fluids and I was outta there. I've also been having a lot of aching in my legs, and this morning when I got out of bed I noticed it had went down to my feet. I'm thinking the aching is probably some type of the "chills". I dunno, I'm no doctor, but my legs are killing me and that's what I'm diagnosing myself with lol. Still not feeling to hot. Just took a warm bath to see if it would help my legs, but no luck. Fixing to get out the heating pad. I'll try anything. If anyone has any suggestions throw them my way.

Everything else is going okay. We leave Monday for Houston. I go for restaging and will find out that Thursday if the meds are working. Everyone keep their fingers, toes, arms.....everything crossed for me! I need good news!!

Quick Update

I just got home from Houston. Had a quick trip up there for Blood work, EKG and I saw the Clinical Nurse. Blood work and EKG were good. They upped my meds. I will be taking 3 twice a day, instead of 2 twice a day. That's it, everything is still the same. The 27th is the BIG DAY. That's when we find out if the meds are working. Just a quick update. I'm about to crawl in bed, gotta work tomorrow.

04/23/10

Got home Wednesday from Houston. I had to go for another wonderful 10 hour day of blood draws and EKG's. Everything went smoothly. I am off the MEC meds for a full two weeks. I have what they call a "clean out" period. I'm really hoping I start feeling better since I will be off the meds for the two weeks. Since I started the MEC meds I have had horrible headaches, yucky stomach, the WONDERFUL rash (which by the way is no way near as bad as it was the first time) and I have small sores in my mouth that is causing my throat to hurt. The rash is on my scalp again which is killing me!! It itches, hurts and is just annoying! I will fly back on Wednesday the 28th. I start appointments early Thursday morning. I have blood work, EKG, more blood work for clinical use, I see the Dermatologist and also see the doctor. Full day on Thursday. Then Friday I have an Echo. I hate Echo's, they are so uncomfortable and it kind of hurts because they press do dang hard on my chest. Then nothing else until Sunday morning. I will go in for more blood work and then I will fly home. So it's going to be another long stay in Houston. My step mom is going to be in Houston with her sisters during the same time. Her sister that I have mentioned in an earlier blog has finished her treatments for breast cancer. Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was going to go spend time with them that Friday and Saturday, but I found out I have the Echo scheduled on Friday so that ruined our plans. So anyone there in Houston that wants to come entertain me Saturday, I will be at the Holiday Inn on Kirby LOL. On that Monday, May 3rd I will start talking the BRAF meds full time. Not sure yet what all the side affects are, but I will definately find out when I see the doctor. So everything is going okay, all except me feeling like crap all the time.

I also want to ask for everyone to keep the Rich family in your prayers. For those that don't know Bruce passed away this past weekend. I found out early Sunday morning and it just devistated me. He was the sweetest man and i am going to miss him and our talks. Everytime he would come in the office we would always spend time to update each other on how things were going, what treatments we were going through and let each other know of any new treatments we had heard about. It was so nice to talk to someone that was going through the same thing because we truely understood how each other felt. I didn't get to attend his funeral because I was stuck in Houston. Even though I was not there in person, my heart and my mind was with them.

Update

Just thought I'd give a little update. I started the new trial last Monday, April 5th. I was feeling good and everything was going smooth until Sunday. I think the meds finally hit me and I haven't felt good since. I have a pounding headache that will not go away. I've been nauseated and my whole body just feels kind of weak. All these are side effects of the drugs, so there's not much I can do about it. I have other meds to help with the nausea and headaches but they don't seem to work very well. I tried to go back to work yesterday but ended up coming home. I'm hoping all this will pass when my body gets used to the meds, I hope. Also so far no rash. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I fly back into Houston on Sunday, to be there first thing monday for another long day of sitting in the little rooms so they can take blood and do EKG's for 10 hours. Not looking forward to it at all. I will be there until Wednesday. Other than that Brayden and David are doing wonderful. David is working his butt off and Brayden is soooooooooo ready for summer. Just wanted to give everyone a little update.

It's a go!!

Here goes clinical trial #2!! All my test looked okay so I get to start the trial. Bad thing is the therapy rooms are all booked for tomorrow so I can't start until Monday. It's too expensive to fly home and fly back so I'm stuck! David went home today, and mom flew in. Wish I could have gone home with him. I miss my Brayden :-( Gonna have to Skype him and David tonight. I love being able to see him and talk to him at the same time. So much better than just talking on the phone. Thanks so much Amie for introducing me to Skype. I know I'm a little behind, but I do live in Colorado City. Were always the last to know lol!! So I will go in Monday to start. All I gotta do is take pills. But the first day is gonna be a long day. Gotta stay there for 10 hours. They draw blood and take EKG's all day. It's a looooong day of just sitting there. Think the lap top is gonna go with me. One of the side effects of the drug is the horrible rash. I'm still clearing up from that crap and it's about to get bad again. I just hope it's not as bad as last time. Only time will tell. Everyone keep positive thoughts about this drug. It's gonna work!!!!! It has to work. My scans were as expected. The tumors have grown and there are new ones on my lungs. But it has not spread anywhere else, thank goodness. The CT scan also showed a big cyst on my left overy that they are wanting to send me to a Gyno up here to have it looked into further. He used one of those "doctor" terms while describing it. Pretty much said it needs to be looked at. Yay, wonderful. One more thing for me to stress about. I know it will all be okay, but until I know for sure I can't help but think about it. That's about it for now. Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!!

Clinical Trial #2!!

It's been a while since I've updated so I thought I'd let everyone know what's been going on. I went back to Houston last week for a check up since my surgery. The surgeon said everything looks good and everything has healed up nicely. I saw my Oncologist also. Found out that the tumor they removed that's sitting in the lab is growing cancer cells "beautifully". Which is a good thing. So we have that there for future use(see my last post about the vaccine). She said my x-ray only showed 1 tumor had grown in size just a tiny bit. That really put my mind at ease. I made myself sick worrying that they were all growing and had doubled in size. I try not to think the worst, but I always do. In all my check ups went good. I got a call today from the clinical nurse. I have to be back in Houston Monday, so David and I are heading up there Sunday. I have to sign the consent to start the trial on Monday, then I have a full week of appointments. Scans, blood work, EKG's, eye check up.....all the "fun" stuff. Then Friday I will start taking the pills. They are a combonation of a MEC and BRAF inhibitor. So they are going to target two of the chains that come before it turns into cancer. That's my way to explain it haha!! I have to stay in Houston after that just in case I have a reaction to the meds. They really want me to stay the full 15 days, but of course they can't make me. After talking with her I decided to stay and if I feel okay and don't have any worries then I will come home for a couple days and then go back. David will be with me the first week, and my mom is going to fly up there for the second week. I'm so glad that we will be staying in a hotel and not the hospital. So I searched the internet all day looking for a cheap, but decent hotel. We got one that has a kitchenette in it so we can cook instead of eating out. Gotta go as cheap as we can. So that pretty much sums it up for now. Looks like Houston is gonna be my home for the next two weeks. I really wish it was summer so Brayden could go. I just really hate leaving him. Especially for that long. But I know he's being well taken care of while I'm gone. When I find out a little more about the trial I will share it with everyone. I'm really really REALLY praying it doesn't affect me very bad so I can work and lead a somewhat normal life.