The Game Plan

Bob and Kathie felt they had a good meeting with Dr. Aklilu (now you have his spelling good luck with the pronunciation).

Eddie joined them for their appointment - more ears are always helpful when re-going through all the information presented in such a short span of time.

Kathie is currently getting another CT and then a Bone scan on Thursday so that they can see if they need to continue going to MD Anderson on a "regular" basis for scans. If Wake Forest's prove similar, they may not have to go to MD Anderson so often. This is also so Dr. Aklilu can determine for himself if he feels the tumors have truly enlarged (he had his own scans done there before and wants to compare apples to apples rather than comparing the MD Anderson scans to his own). There was some question in the family's head about whether Kathie has been on the FOLFOX long enough. It is supposed to be 4-6 treatments before it can be determined whether it's working. Kathie had 4, but only 3 were consecutive (she had one week that had to be put off due to low blood counts). Dr. Eng was very conclusive, but she is also not great about answering questions, and second opinions are just a good idea.

Kathie definitely likes their version of the CT scan better - she's allowed to eat while she drinks the lovely metallic lemonade (reducing the penny aftertaste effect) and it was 45 minutes versus the almost hour and a half at MD Anderson. We'll find out soon enough if this affects the overall quality of the scans.

Either way, for now, Kathie is looking at starting on a regimen of Erbitux and Camptosar. Many of you may recall that Kathie does not metabolize Camptosar correctly and that it causes her to become neutropenic. This treatment will be at a much lower level of the drug (supposedly helpful?) and they will be monitoring her neutrophils on a weekly basis to decide what level to keep the Camptosar at. So week one (starting Monday as of now) is both the Erbitux and the Camptosar, and week two is just the Erbitux. So this is also different in that she will be getting some sort of treatment every week. This regimen has about a 20-30% success rate, but Dr. Aklilu had a good point when he was speaking with them, 'It's either 0 or 100% for you.' And again, we're hoping since Kathie has been in the lower percentages, maybe she can be in the lower percentage for something positive this time:)

Due to the fact that they need to use the monitoring of her neutrophils to determine the amount of Camptosar to give her... she will not be receiving a regular neulasta shot, but will receive boosts if they detect her count going down.

Kathie will be on this treatment for about two months before we'll know if it is working. When they discussed some of the other options, Dr. Aklilu did not seem to believe there was strong evidence of extension with them, so this is the primary choice.

Bob is heading back to Lafayette and then Bob and Lauren will head down on Sunday (Lauren's finals are dragging all the way out to Friday and her roommate is graduating on Saturday). Lynette and Sophie and Kaitlyn will be joining the family for an early Christmas - so we'll be almost complete for the holiday. Christen will be coming for an extended visit in February, as it looks now anyway - but you know us, always changing plans!

Thanks again to all the friends who are helping out with the house in Lafayette.

Posted by Lauren