More info

We met with Dr. H and his team today at the Cancer Institute.  Apparently, his read of the scans is different than what the doctors in Boise saw.  His feeling is that my lungs are disease free.  This is good news.  However, he does feel that there is lymph involvement in my back.  That being said the course of treatment will be what is known as IL-2 (pronounced “aisle two”).  I’ll be admitted to the hospital this coming Friday for 5 days of consecutive treatment.  On the 6th day, I’ll return to the clinic for a 3 hour hydration session and then I’ll spend two weeks recovering at home.  We’ll go through 2 cycles of this and then rerun the scans to see if we have made any progress.

From what I understand, the hospitalization is pretty intensive so I’m asking for no visitors.  Especially during this first round.  Let’s see how it works out and what I can expect for side effects and then I’ll know whether or not visitors are cool.   Mom and Mel will be staying with me at the hospital.  Dad and Becka will be making the commute. 

I’ll post more as I get more info.  Tomorrow is a full day back at the clinic getting lab work done in preparation for admittance.  Feel free to ask any questions….

Update 12/15/2008

A week ago I went for additional scans: a full body CT scan as well as an MRI of my head.  The good news is the head/brain MRI came back entirely clear!!!  Unfortunately, the CT scan showed not only recurrance of some of the previous tumor sites, but additional growth and metastasis. 

So we have wasted no time getting the ball rolling on the start of a new treatment plan.  Last Wednesday, my sister Melissa flew up to Boise and we packed up what I would need for an extended trip to L.A. (including my two kitties Lefty Lucy, and Scioscia) and we quickly headed south in my car. 

Before we could leave Boise, however, my wonderful cohort friends came over for an evening of hilarity and laughter.  I was really glad to see them because I so wanted them to know that regardless of this year’s challenges, it has still been the best year of my life.  To which they quickly informed me that I needed to get out more!  Ever the smart asses…

Mel and I took several days to drive, stopping to spend the night in Provo and Las Vegas.  Ironically, a friend of mine (Dr. Popcorn Chicken) was at a medical conference in Vegas at the time, so Mel and I got to spend an evening of hijinx with him.   He wanted tattoos…. I was strong enough to decline!

I’m back at Mom’s house now and we’ve already had our first dose of In N Out burger.  We have an appointment with Dr. H at the John Wayne Cancer Institute tomorrow at 11am.  I’m eager to hear what he has to say…

The wrench

I’ve never been so confused.  I don’t even know where to start.  I went up to the John Wayne Cancer Institute yesterday and met with a couple of doctors.  Doctor-In-Training came in first and was careful not to say too much, just took a bunch of notes and asked some questions.  Then he left to go get Dr. F.  who apparently is the doc DIT was training with. 

Dr. F. took everything we’ve known so far and blew it all wide open.  His recommendations are for IL-2 treatments first and surgery later.  Exactly the OPPOSITE of what has been recommended in Idaho.  This is essentially the “Plan C” I talked about a on 8/1/2008.  He feels the best course of treatment is repeated cycles of inpatient Interleuken therapy.  This would mean being hospitalized for a week at a time.  I could leave the hospital to recover and then just as I’m getting back to normal it should be time to start another cycle.    Then if the tumors respond they will continue with the cycles until the tumors stop shrinking and do surgery at that point.  Who knows how long or how many treatments or cycles this could end up taking. 

I don’t remember too much about the appointment after that.  I’ve changed my flight back to Idaho (the original flight is probably landing right about now..) and we’re meeting with medical oncologists in Santa Monica today to get into more detail about these treatments.