theresac's Cancer Blog
July 25, 2008
| Gemzar/Avastin it's working | Views: 382 |
Finally, today a bit of good news. I had a CT scan on Monday and heard the news today from the onc. that the tumors are shrinking. the mass on the right chest is about 1/2 the size and the lesion on the liver which was 1 cm in diameter is now barely perceptible. This is the first scan since starting the Gemzar/Avastin clinical trail 2 months ago. So- I am so happy and so grateful to all of my family and friends who have been praying for me.
My oncologist is really happy with the progress and is pleased that I continue to tolerate the rather high dose of Gemzar. Blood counts continue to be good and I’m managing the side effects pretty well. So I pray the treatment continues to be effective!
Karin 
Susan 
Thanks for your support -
Good new some times come in small packages.
Hug Sherri
It is always a blessing to see good reports. Thanks for sharing.
Hugz
Mac
Dear Theresac,
Great and miraculous news…. I am so happy for you. I am very big supporter of Clincal Trials. When I was dx. 14 years ago, they immediately tested all of my children as possible bm donors though they told me it would be a very small chance of them being a match for they are only half of my DNA.None of my children matched. I was put in the Bone Marror Donor Registry and to this day a match has never been found. But, as scared as I was with this news back then, now I know this wasn’t God’s plans for me. I was put on a nasty drug called Interferon Alpha 2B where I had to give myself sub-q injections @ a dosage of 10 million units daily, and Hydrea. I can’t begin to tell you just how bad the side effects was. I was in the hospital so often and I tried so hard to hold out if I was feeling badly
and if I thought I had a problem I would try to put on a brave face for I had 3 very scared children at home. We were having private sessions with our Pastor to help them deal with this. Then, there was a new drug that was in clincal trials & it was called STI-571. But, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get into the clincal trials at that time.(Thankfully, there has many so many changes and progress with this) I followed the progress for Novartis was waiting for FDA approval. Me and my children actually watched the House of Rep (on C-Span) pass this drug together and we felt as though we had won the lottery. My onc. had me in his office 3 days later and her perfomed a BMB to establish my baseline of the leukemia. He started me on this drug which the drug company, Novartis had named this,” GLEEVEC”. After watching the progress of the leukemia patients that were in the clincal trials, I was so thrilled to now be on this drug and it gets even better, It comes in a Pill that I take daily. My Dear Friend, when I was told to get my “affairs” together for there was no treatment that could put me in remission in 1994 and to now be on this Miracle drug, I had so much hope. So, Doc had me on this drug and waited an entire year to repeat a bone marrow biopsy, though anxious to have it done sooner, of course he knew best. So, exactly 1 year later he did the BMB and the wait was on for the results. This is always tough, but I have learned to deal with it after so long. So, the day came to see my dear Dr. Weiss and when he came into the exam room he was smiling so big and he always greets me with a friendly HUG, and he said, I have some amazing news for you. Patty we are in REMISSION! Can you believe that? What a miracle this is. So, I am sure that you are thinking this is going into a mini-series but I am going to cut to the chase. This new drugs seem to be doing wonderful changes to your body. Clinical Trials are wonderful for they are making such amazing advances so please enjoy the benefits of this and keep me updated on your progress. God Bless you and keep those Positive thoughts going. Hugs and Prayers, Patty
Thanks everyone for the comments and support. Patty you have hit the nail on the head describing all the emotions on waiting for scan results and the determination to raise our children. I really admire you and find a lot of hope in your story- Thank you for sharing!
Hooray! Keep those thoughts POSITIVE!
bo