8-6-09 Finally an Answer--- Of Sorts

Yesterday I called my oncologist again and got the answer on my biopsy. The results knocked me out of both clinical trials, so we are preparing to trudge through the "standard therapy", which is taking the Herceptin (with no side effects) and Abraxane (with side effects, such as hair falling out.) This is the same type of treatment I had in Chapter One for the second round of chemo.

Now for the clinical trials: 1. My HER2 score had to be above 2.3 to be considered HER2-Positive. The range to be considered HER2-Negative is 1.8 to 2.2. Not wanting to be outdone, my score came in at 2.2, sitting on the proverbial fence post and it's sticking me. That is why it took them so long to come out with an "equivocal" reading of 2.2. They said it was very unusual and had never seen it before in their testing. Dr. Brooks has asked them to go back and do a PCR test on the DNA which will provide a more specific reading. Because my results were not HER2-Positive, that pretty well knocks me out of that trial. The PCR might make a difference but we're not holding our breath.

The second clinical trial: 2. My liver enzyme reading in April was around 130. On July 21 it was 502. On August 3 it was 858. This study has a limit of 750 to quality for it.

Dr. Laidley called me on Tuesday. She had had a long talk with Dr. Brooks and she said she was "very upset over this." Bless her heart, you could hear the tears in her eyes. I told her that I had called her when I found out about the liver cancer in July because I didn't know if this affected my relationship with her or not. She told me in no uncertain terms: "You will never get rid of me." So she is installing a new mediport on Monday at 11:30 at MCD. This port will just stay in my little body. It was really good to talk to her.

Tuesday I called Dr. Brooks' nurse for some medicine to stop my stomach from churning and my liver from making it feel like I was going to throw up. It has helped tremendously.

Tomorrow we go see Dr. Brooks to discuss the biopsy and the results from it. He's hoping he'll have the PCR results back by then so we have the full picture of what we're looking at.