Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:19 AM, CDT

Hello Everyone,
Once again a two parter!!!
Part I
We had a great weekend. We went to a birthday party and we headed out west to the Yankee Candle Store out in South Deerfield. The cold weather has brought out my neuropathy so my hands and my feet have been killing me and it hurts just to touch a piece of cheese from the fridge.
Oh, are you waiting to hear how it went with Dr. Walsh yesterday?? Well, according to the latest PET scan I am officially in remission!! Did you read that correctly??? Yes, I am in remission. They are saying that I’m 90% in remission but the difference between 90 and 100% remission is miniscule.
There is still some activity going on within the tumors but apparently the activity is very much improved. The hypermetabolic rate of a malignant tumor scores a 4, on what scale, I have no idea. Our Fellow, Dr. Anwar told us that scale is very hard to explain so I don’t have the science behind the scale to explain what the heck it’s all about. However, I don’t really care what the scale is or how it’s figured; all I care about is the numbers.
Anyway, when a mass or a lesion scores a 4 or above, the oncologists assume it’s malignant. My primary lung tumor is scoring a 2.7 and my mediastinum scores at 3.0. The two major Cavitary lesions score 1.5 and 1.2. “The previously described hypermetabolic supraclavicular lymph nodes (does anyone remember where the supraclavicular lymph node is?????), mediastinal lymph nodes, and extensive pulmonary metastases are not seen currently.” That’s a direct quote from the PET scan write up!
Can you believe it???
The PET scan picks up cancerous activity that is dime sized and larger. So, there is no way to know if there are still smaller active cancer cells.
Where do we go from here?
I’m going to take a few more full rounds of chemo (the Oxaliplatin, the 5FU and the leucovorin) just to make sure (call it an insurance policy). As I’ve mentioned, I’ve had 12 rounds and have just about reached maximum toxicity. However, I can still put my earrings in, I can still clasp a necklace and work buttons on my shirt. I can handle my keys and my coins and haven’t found myself tripping over everything. So, I’m willing to go three more rounds. I’ve also agreed to report any difficulty in the above areas. Basically, we’ll take it round by round. Our goal is to have three full rounds but if I have major side effects, we’ll stop.
After the Oxaliplatin, I will continue to go to clinic every other week to receive the 5Fu and the Leucovorin-again as an insurance policy. Apparently, I will receive the treatment for the forseeable future…which means, I’m not losing that darn fanny pack anytime soon!! J However, the 5FU doesn’t have major side effect (I’m not even sure if it has any) and the Leucovorin is a chemically reduced derivative of Folic Acid so there’s no side effects there!
The great thing about the fact that my tumors have continued to respond to the Oxaliplatin is that we can “put it on the shelf” and take it back out if the tumors come back. Tumors have the ability to mutate themselves once they’ve figured out the chemical make up of the chemo being used against it. Once your tumors have stopped responding to a chemo, the doctors have to switch it up and try something else. I will have the opportunity to use Oxaliplatin again if the tumors grow back because they never stopped responding to it. Dr. Walsh added that he treated me with a fairly mild form of chemo and if the tumors come back and the Oxaliplatin stops working, he can hit me again even harder with something else.