More Chemo
Well today was the day that we met with the Dr.’s regarding Kelly’s new course of treatment. I have to say after a weekend of letting this all set in, I am in better place then I was last Thursday. We are still in a much more difficult place then if the biopsy came back as scar tissue and do not want to give false hope, but why would things be easy, after all I was an Eastman before I got married and had to learn everything the hard way.
When we sat down with Dr. Jason, I had 14 studies that I wanted to go over with him - boy did he earn his money today. He was great and went through each study and went over the pros and cons of each study and he answered every question I had for him. He told me he felt like he was back in front of the medical board. What amazed me is he knew almost everything about all the trials and the specific drugs that were being used in these trials. We decided as a team what the best course of treatment would be for Kelly, that’s what I respect so much about him is that he considers us all a team. It’s not just his decision and that’s it, he listens to what you have to say as a parent, a family member and a friend of the family.
Kelly will not be going on any actually trials, but we will be using drugs from these trials, making it up as we go along and what Kelly’s body tells us what works and what does not work. Not all the drugs will be chemo drugs. The theory behind that is we have already hit her with very high doses of chemo and there are still active tumor cells present. We will be treating her with a drug that will actually go to the tumor and cut off blood supply to the tumor, in theory killing off the tumor. The other drug is a chemo drug, but Kelly will be receiving such a low amount that she really should not see many side effects that she has seen in the past and should continue with how well and strong she is feeling today.
We will still be doing our “Make A Wish” at the end of March and I am free to take Kelly to Kentucky to see Aunt Debbie in between treatments or anywhere else for that matter. Her counts should not drop so low that she will be able to continue to get stronger and stronger and go places without me worrying as much about her catching something, I have my shopping partner back. She will be getting these drugs every two weeks at the day hospital (outpatient) and it will take about 4-5 hours each visit. There is not much documented evidence on this cocktail of drugs for medulloblastoma, but it has been used in other brain tumors with some response, so I am asking everyone to pray louder and louder to God. We are in unfamiliar territory here and need to just take this day to day hour to hour.
I have come to the conclusion that we have our miracle, and her name is Kelly. What we need to pray for is a new form of treatment for Kelly to be part of that will go down in the medical journals as a new way of curing medulloblastoma. My mom told me God has three answers - yes, no, and not right now. I think His “not right now” answer for us is because Kelly needs to be part of something new, something that needs to be invented so kids down the road who will be in Kelly’s situation will be able to be cured like Kelly will be.
Ellen