Treatment Starts

Carrie heard from her oncologist 3 times this past friday and after much discussion, Carrie starts her next round of treatment THIS monday (tomorrow) April 19. She will be in Birmingham monday-friday, receiving this new chemotherapy drug everyday. They are worried about this medication making her more nauseous and sick than the previous ones so they will be prescribing her Sancuso, which is a patch she'll wear for nausea for the 5 days of treatment, and she'll also be taking another oral chemo drug called Xeloda. Her doctor will not be in the office Monday or Tuesday, but Carrie hopes to see her Wednesday when she will be seeing other patients and ask her any remaining questions. Her oncologist said this regiment is typically given every 42 days, but they'll monitor her counts and go from there as to how often she'll actually do treatment. They are still looking into the possibility of clinical trials so they are still working on that. We will let you know first part of the week how she is doing and any other information we find out.

New Treatment

Carrie heard from her oncologist today and she finally got in touch with the doctor at MD Anderson. After they discussed Carrie's situation, it was concluded that the tumor is indeed growing. They didn't specify whether the necrotic centers were good or bad, but regardless, the tumor is getting larger. They both agreed to try a different chemotherapy regiment called Streptozocin (sp?). Carrie's oncologist at UAB is fighting with our insurance to get this medicine approved - they tried last week and was denied approval, but she's still fighting it. This new treatment is usually given as a 5 days schedule so she'll have it monday-friday on the weeks she has it. We don't know yet how often treatments will be or for how long. We hope to know after it gets approved through our insurance. Carrie's doctor thinks it will start the week of April 26 because she doesnt know if she'll be able to get it approved and scheduled in time for next week. Until then, Carrie has decided to go ahead and take out her disability leave through work. She's put in the request for the disability claim to be started so she will not return to work for the time being. This will give her time to focus on herself and start treatment whenever her doctor has a plan set in stone. We will of course update everyone as soon as we find anything more out.

Not so good news

Carrie got a call yesterday (Monday) from UAB saying that she had an appointment today to meet with Dr. Arnoletti (the surgeon that performed her surgery last August). We thought that this consult was to discuss the possibility of removing the two masses that are located on her left adrenal gland or to actually remove the gland. However, we found out that the two masses were actually one, eight centimeter mass and that they found two more masses on her right side where the original mass was located. They do not want to do surgery to remove the mass on the left side because recovery from the surgery would take anywhere from six to twelve weeks. Carrie would not be able to take any treatments while she is recovering and they are afraid that the new masses will start to grow while she is not taking treatment. So for now, UAB is looking for clinical trials that Carrie can participate in. We hope to hear something in the next couple of days.

No New News

Just a quick update to let everybody know that we do not have any news from Carrie's doctor. They gave her a call late Friday afternoon to let her know they hadn't forgotten about her, but they have not heard back from MD Anderson yet and first thing Monday morning, they will try more agressively to get in touch with her doctor out there. For now, treatments are still postponed until further notice. We'll let everybody know as soon as we have information!!

Carrie's CT Scan Results

After the scan and meeting with her doctor, here is what we know. The mass that is located on the IVC vein has not grown any but it also has not gotten any smaller. The two masses located on her left adrenal gland have grown some but they have necrotic(dead) centers. Since this is the first time our doctor has dealt with this treatment she doesn't know if the dead centers are a good sign or not. She is consulting with the doctor at MD Anderson about this. If the dead centers are not good news we will then be looking at the possibility of doing a different type of chemo, or radiation or the chance of a minor surgery to remove the two masses. As for good news, Carrie's blood counts are up from the last time that she had a blood test. For now we are waiting to hear back from our doctor and her chemo treatments are postponed/cancelled until further notice. We hope to hear something by the weekend. Stay tuned for more updates.

Extra Update

Just a quick update to let everyone know what's been going on. First a real quick correction. Carrie's CT scan is Wednesday the 7th and she starts the next treatment on Thursday the 8th. Second to let everyone know what's going on outside of treatment. On Friday March 26th, Carrie and I bought our first home. So we have been here for a week now and loving it. We would like to thank the small army that helped move us from the trailer to the house. Pictures of the house are on facebook under Carrie's profile. So for now we are being kept busy unpacking all of the boxes. Please continue to pray for us and I will have an update on Wednesday to let everyone know what we hear from the doctor.

Next Scan and Round 3 Scheduled

Now that Round #2 is completed, it's time for Carrie to get another CT scan and see if the chemo is working. She will have the scan next wednesday, April 8 and we'll meet with her doctor that afternoon to get the results. She also had blood work done here in Auburn this past Monday and her counts were good enough to continue with treatment as scheduled so she'll start round 3 next Thursday, April 8.