8-07-09 Doctor News

OK, I'm being lazy. David R Smith wrote the following email to people and I'm copying it here in my blog tonight.

We just got back from the doctor's office (oncologist). We have now what we think is the difinitive information in her case, though as sure as I say that something else will change tomorrow. Anyway, here it is.

1. Vickie definately does not qualify for either clinical trial. In one case her liver count is about 100 too high. In the other the Her2 count is one point too low.

2. She goes in Monday morning at 10:00 a.m. to get her medaport put back in, which will allow them to give the standard chemo with less pain and bruising. Her original surgeon and favorite doctor (Dr. Laidley) will be doing this surgery.

3. On Friday afternoon Vickie will begin her new chemo routine. She will be taking two drugs. One is Herceptin, which you have probably heard her talk about and which she took before. It has no appreciable side effects. The second is Abraxane, which is part of the Taxol family. She took another drug in that family before. This drug will cause her hair to fall out and will lower her blood count/immune system. If it is like the last time, it will also cause her to have flu like aches. However, it should cause little or no nausea or throwing up, which was a real problem with her first set of drugs last time.

4. Unlike past chemo treatments, there is no set number of treatments (before it was four on one set of drugs, then four on another set). She will be taking this pair of drugs once every three weeks until either the tumor disappears or they see that the medicine is doing no good.

5. Once the tumor disappears Vickie will continue taking Herceptin every month for the rest of her life or until/unless they come up with something else.

6. This should work but the doctor says that is does not work on about 15% of patients. If she is in the 15% then things become truly critical. So she is not home free yet and we do need your prayers that, if it is God's will, the medicine would have the predicted effect.


Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. We'll keep you updated as we know more.

8-07-09 Happy Anniversary!!!

Our oldest son, Kelly & his wife, Tami are celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary today. I called to talk to one of them. Aubrey answered the phone and told me that Mama & Daddy are out celebrating, but if I wanted to talk to them, I could just call them on their cell phones. I think not. . . . Congratulations you two!

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.

8-4-09 Still No News--But Got Some Drugs

I called the oncologist office this morning to get them to prescribe me something for this heartburn/nausea/painful/burning sensation I have on and off all day long now. They called in an RX for Prochlorperazine 10 mg tablets. The papers say it is for "nausea/vomiting." I took one with supper and it seems to have helped. I can still feel it, but it is better.

We still have heard nothing about the HER2 results. I did get a phone call from my #1 doctor, Dr. Laidley. She called to let me know that she had talked to Dr. Brooks yesterday and told me that she was very "upset" over all of this. Partly she was upset that the cancer is back, but I got the distinct feeling that she didn't like something about how all of this was handled. She said that Dr. Brooks asked her to install a mediport, so she was calling to get that set up. Funny thing, we specifically asked about the port yesterday and Dr. Brooks said we didn't need to think about that right now. So what changed overnight? Got to call back tomorrow to get that question answered.

Dr. Laidley told me that I would never get rid of her, that she would always be in my life. That was so comforting. Her assistant called back about 4:30 to schedule the mediport, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday, given that we get some questions answered.

8-03-09 Some Good News!

Today we went to see the oncologist. I had to give blood for the usual tests and Mieshea (one of the blood-suckers) was an angel. I told her about all the issues they had 2 weeks ago and what my poor arm looked like. She said, "Oh no. You tell them that you want them to use a Pediatric 25 gauge butterfly needle with a syringe. And if they tell you, NO, then you tell them you'll come down to her and she'll do it." I pointed out the vein where they finally got the IV to work on my upper left arm and she got it on the first try with no problem. She even gave us 2 packages of the 25 gauge & the 23 gauge kits in case they said they didn't have any......

Next we met with Dr. Brooks, my oncologist. They still don't have back the Her2 pathology to know for certain that this liver cancer is the same exact breast cancer. But we did get to ask him questions----Only to be told, that yes, it is serious, but it is not fatal at this time and he has 2 trials and a standard chemo process that we can go through once we have those results. David & I were just kind of sitting there, like maybe he hadn't read my results from the biopsy. By the time we recovered our voices, David asked him if we were looking at a short term on my life expectancy, and he said, "no, we're going to fight this thing just like you did before." He told us that unless everything we try goes south (and there is always that possibility) that I will get through this recurrence and be cancer-free again. And then he said if/when it comes back somewhere else in the body, we'll fight it again. We were so relieved that we weren't talking about months to live, but were actually talking about years with a good chance of being cancer-free again.

So what Dr. Courtright told me over the phone was very different from what Dr. Brooks is saying AND what many of us had read about metastatic breast cancer going to the liver on the Internet. We were so relieved and thankful and just appreciative. It's not going to be fun & games, but we did it before and we'll do it again.

I did have the echo cardiogram done at 4 on my heart. Remarks to contrary by my husband, I do have one and it was just beating and swooshing its little self away.

I asked Dr. Brooks about the pains I've been having in the right breast (the actual breast cancer sight) and he made a note to schedule me for a mammogram on the right breast. I just made an appointment for the left breast in October I think.

Andrea Canady was at MCD taking a field sobriety test (AKA a lung capacity test) before she can go back into the hospital on Wednesday to start her next round of chemo. She came downstairs and found us and got goosebumps on both arms when we told her!!! Andrea has been such a friend through this. It's impossible to put a price on that kind of friendship.

So the next step will be to go to Dr. Brooks' office again when they get the HER2 results in and we decide what chemo steps to take. Thank you for everyone's prayers, phone calls, cards, books, visits, hugs & love. David & I appreciate every one of you who have given of yourself to us. God is good.

Squirrels In The Rain

This weekend it rained and rained at Rowlett while my parents & brother & sister-in-law were here. The 6 of us played 3 games of 84, so we relented and raised the kitchen blinds so we could watch the rain. Wouldn't you know it, but a brave squirrel was out in the rain. And Sandy saw it.


He whined and cried and paced around at the windows, wanting to get out. That wasn't going to happen because the backyard was so wet and we didn't want another fiasco like before with the squirrel nearly being crinkled like a pretzel. And plus Sandy would bring in all sorts of mud.

Sandy stood at the back door at attention just watching for the squirrel to show back up. It was really pathetic.

He was really exasperated with us for not letting him out!

This Weekend's Company

Last night my mom Maude & dad Cristol & brother Tommy & sister-in-law Peggy drove here from Dickens, Texas (a good 6 hour trek from Rowlett up close to Lubbock) to visit. We were supposed to go home over the July 4th weekend, but the rash of ringworms nixed that idea. So it was very good to see them.

They came with food, too!!! Peggy brought potato salad & brisket. Mama brought ham, fresh tomatoes, fresh broccoli, their 1st ripe canteloupe of the summer, some bananas and some Snickerdoodle cookies. It was all wonderful.

We played 3 games of 42 or 84 or 88 or whatever it is with 6 people. I am proud to report that Mama, Peggy & I won 2 out of 3 games.

Sandy was thrilled to have new people come see him again this weekend! And these people played different games with him than the grandkids did. He really enjoyed them and I think the feeling was mutual. Mama & I took him for his early walk this morning and then everybody went on another walk around 11. He would like to have company like this ALL the time. Last night the drippings from the brisket pan got emptied onto his Iams food and boy, did it go fast!!! It's just cool having little hands here that drop a lot on the floor around her chair and now this weekend he had big hands giving him bites.