The Topotecan sickness hit Tuesday, and Karen had many of the same side effects as previous medications. There was the same queasiness, extreme fatigue, sleepiness, etc. Since she took some of the anti-nausea meds prophylactically there were fewer cookies being tossed. Another big change over the last week has been with pain management. She has…
Author: Charlie
Topotecan Round 1, Dose 1
Karen had her first dose of Topotecan yesterday, and is scheduled to receive another dose the next two Mondays. This will be followed by a one week break and then with round 2. Solid food isn’t agreeing with Karen right now. She’s tried a few meals over the last week, and hasn’t kept them down…
Going Home Soon
Karen’s kidney function is continuing to improve, and they are sending her home today. We’re stuck here for a couple hours with the discharge process, and while they get us some of the supplies we’ll need at home to relive her stomach pressure. I’ll not go into all those details… She’s still feeling lousy, but…
Change of Plans…
Karen had additional lab work Monday that showed her kidney function in decline, so the docs admitted her to the hospital. The fluid pressure in her abdomen is causing some distress on her kidneys, so they performed a procedure to relieve that pressure. The procedure this time was a little more involved, as they installed…
Update for the Week
The doc at MD Anderson promised to bring up her case to the cancer board to see if they might have some other option coming up, but he wasn’t able to find anything. While waiting on that, and the scheduled chemo for Thursday, we checked out a few options on the Internet. We looked at…
Back Home Again, and Glad to Be Here
Karen and I are back home from our trip to MD Anderson in Texas. The travel was hard on her, so it’s a huge relief to be back here. First thing we did when we got back last night (about midnight or so) was have some hot dogs and Doritos, and hit the sack. Both…
Not Much To Tell Yet
Karen and I are still down at MD Anderson, but she has an appointment this morning with a Targeted Therapy doc. We’ve been trying to work our way through their system this week, and it went a little slowly. We booked a flight back later tonight, but can cancel it if the doc needs us…
It’s Warm Down Here!
Surprise! We’re in Texas getting ready to meet with a doc at MD Anderson. Still holding off on chemo, because the thought is that it won’t be effective, but would delay entry into clinical trials that may be. So, we worked hard last week to get her an appointment at MD Anderson, and into their…
A Somber Week
This has been a tough week for Karen. We were holding on to the hope that the Roswell center might fit her into another program, but when we spoke with them yesterday they indicated they didn’t have any other options at this time, at least nothing that the Cleveland Clinic doesn’t have. They are going…
Roswell Trial Update 2/26/18
Unfortunately, Karen’s test showed that she was negative for the HLA-A*2 antigen, so does not qualify for the clinical trial. We reached out to the Clinic to see what they have lined up next, and will report back when we have something definitive planned. Karen has been feeling some new pains, and isn’t very energetic….