It’s Door Number One

It’s the door with the clincal trial! After two days of testing (exhausting) at Sarah Cannon with ekg, an echocardiogram, a CAT scan, 2 eye exams, they have decided to put me on the clincal trial. It will probably begin in next week or so. (Dan was amazing as he waited in doc offices for hours with me. He said it was fine as he read the Moth essays. They’re very good btw. )

I’ll be required to make weekly trips to Nashville, More chemo (taxotere) for eight weeks with oral chemo Rebastinid daily. So that will bring totals to 53+ chemos. By then the skin lesions should be stabilized, and they will scan, I will then have another 8 weeks to see if they disappear. The CAT scan showed I also have a weird module in my lung that they think may go away with the drugs. I still have pleurisy in left lung which can be painful. Dan says it’s probably from the proton therapy July-October.

They also saw something that looked like some sclerosis of my spine (and they use the bone chilling phrase—apt phrase—possible metastasis of spine) but Dan doesn’t think it’s cancer; he says spinal mets look a definite way. Useful to be married to an oncologist. I think it’s from old injury of falling off bike or something and old age. It has been mentioned before in former pet scans,

Dan said my CAT scan actually looked good for someone my age. Very little joint damage, no cysts here and there. So there’s that. Cancer gone from lymphs under right arm. So thank you Dr. Clark, Jordan, Taryn, Brittany, Patti, Wilma and other Brittany and all involved at Thompson. Now the bits of cancer remaining are on my left shoulder in the skin. Surely they can get that!

Onto the next section of this triple negative, three-year journey. (And yes. I’ve tried everything. I even had a complete clincal response in July 2017. Weird).