It has been four months since my last post. It has been a crazy Summer. We have been through many ups and downs. Judy progress and scan were going well up until June. The scan were showing no additional spread and tumor shrinkage. The Mid-Summer scans indicated that the soft tissue tumors were still responding but the cancer was spreading in the bones and a new tumor showed up in the liver. They decided to take Judy off of maintenance therapy. They started weekly chemo and daily radiation to the lower spine and hips. Judy has endured some severe nausea and fatigue through most of her previous treatment. She never complains and continues to worry about whether everyone has brushed their teeth at night. Once a Mom, always a Mom. The new treatment caused her immune system to crash in August. She contracted a severe blood borne infection. We had to rush her to the hospital after she spiked a fever and blood test confirmed her counts were dangerously out of balance. She was placed in isolation to protect her from additional infections. This was an incredible scary time. The CDC was called in to help determine what infections were in play and how to treat. It was decided to treat everything. They gave her three antibiotics and one antiviral medication. She had IVs in both arms delivering blood, playlets, medications, potassium, magnesium, and fluids. It took 16 days for her immune system to recover well enough to bring her home. There is no place like home.
I must back up a little. Before an appointment to review her latest progress, Judy's brother Keeler forwarded some information on a new drug in clinical trials. It I a immunotherapy based drug that targets the PD-1 protein. During the consultation, Dr. Wang discussed the fact that we needed to proceed in another direction. He placed her on the new chemo with which her body would issues. We brought up the information and PD-1 targeted treatments. He was aware of the trials and had been following the progress. He indicated it was an exciting outside of the box approach that was showing great hope for future treatment. He jumped on the computer and found that Moffit Cancer Center in Tampa was conducting clinical trials. It appeared Judy could be a potential candidate. He submitted the information and we received a call within a week. The hospital stay caused us to postpone the appointment twice but we finally made it to Moffit.
Judy has had three days of extensive tests and screening. We are currently at Moffit for the final round of tests followed with a biopsy on Wednesday, September 11. If everything goes well, her participation in the clinical trial will start Monday, September 16. We are very hopeful. This is a phase II trial of an immunotherapy drug. It uses your own immune system to attack the cancer. Most cancer is overlooked by our immune system because it is our own cells that get off track. The cancer also depresses the immune system. This drug helps ramp up the immune system and aids the body in identifying the cancer as something to target. This greatly simplifies the process but you get the idea. We thank everyone for the thoughts, prayer and support. I don't know what people do without friends like ours. Love from all of us.
Tim
Update:
This a link with the detailed information of the clinical trial Judy begins Monday. We are very happy that she was able to get included. There are only 20 patients with her type of cancer allowed. The timing of this unbelievable. Her adverse reaction to the chemo caused her to discontinue treatment. The referral to Moffit happened within days of Moffit finding out that Medimmune was going to start a phase II trial of the a PD-1 inhibitor that has shown great results and low side effects. The trial was set to open only a week or so after the required flush out period for previous treatments. She will be the one of the first patients to begin this new phase. People wait months and have to fly all over the country to find trials and this one is within driving distance. We know the odds are not good. We also don't know why events have happened that uprooted our lives and family. It may be that we are here for this chain of vents to happen. Whatever the reason, we are hopeful. Judy and I just enjoyed a cup of coffee on the porch. We laughed some and talked about normal daily things. Flash back to December 17, 2013. Judy had lost 90% of the use of her left side and needed 12 Advil a day to function and still experience constant pain. This morning was a gift. She passed a milestone today. Statistics show that 9 months is the mean time period where half the people with her Stage 4 NSCLC are taken by the disease. So having a cup of coffee after a good nights sleep is a miracle. Doing all this without any medications, painkillers or even Advil is a miracle. To have that cup without depression, anger or self pity is the miracle that is my wife Judy. Love to all.
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01693562?term=MEDI4736&cond=%22Carcinoma%2C+Non-Small-Cell+Lung%22&rank=1
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