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Friday, July 6, 2012

Sarcoma treatment update

I haven't posted on Sarcoma since my last post in April on my five year anniversary. In March I had come to a conclusion. My current Oncologist had come to the end of his expertise for my unique cancer. He was in touch with the Doctors at Dana Farber over my treatment, but they were still not sure about what chemo to try. I decided to go to Emory and meet with their new Sarcoma specialist, Dr. Movva. Our first meeting, she presented me with a research paper about my exact cancer and the drug combo they were using to fight lung mets. She wanted to use these drugs on me and she had a reason why. I liked that right off the start! So, I switched Oncologists and we started a new chemo protocol in March. I take Temodar pills, 200mg for 7 days and on the 8th day have an infusion of Avastin. Then I get a week off the drugs and start again. I've been doing this since March 8th. I had a PET scan on April 30th that showed shrinkage of the previously growing nodules. It was minimal shrinkage, but most of all hope! So we continued the protocol for 2 more months. After 4 months on the drugs I had another PET scan. The nodules were basically the same size as on 4/30, no shrinkage or growth. I was disappointed in this. I wanted my wonder drugs to attack and kill those nodules down to nothingness! But the good news is I was stable. "Stable" but unstable emotionally because now I had to think further down the road to the next treatment. We are doing the drugs for 2 more months, through the end of August and we'll scan again and assess. If still stable I may get a break to see what happens on nothing. We'll see. That's the hard part, the unknown...



4 comments:

  1. Hope you are cancer-free, soon, Sandi! Hang in there.
    -Trish

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  2. Playing the waiting game is the hardest thing ever! Just know that you are continually in my prayers & my thoughts... Kick that sarcoma's ass!!!

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  3. Mama, you are so strong and such a fighter. I know the waiting and not knowing is taking a toll on you but try and hang in there and just give it up to God. You ARE going to beat this thing.

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  4. SJN so sorry to hear this. But I like the sound of "stable" !!! Hang in there, you are doing great! ;-)

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