Treatments To Begin Soon...

What a busy week this has been! On Monday, we met with Dr. Joseph Koenig, Daves oncologist for his chemotherapy.

We had met with Dr. Savvides of UH Ireland Cancer Ctr. on July 15Th to determine if we were able to do treatments closer to home. This was a yes and Dr. Savvides contacted Dr. Koenig to discuss Daves treatments, he will be following Daves progress closely.

Dave, Dr. Koenig and I discussed his course of treatments for this round of chemo. Dave will be getting a port placed on Monday, the 26Th, this is an outpatient surgical procedure. He will be receiving the following chemotherapy drugs, Carboplatin and Taxol every 21 days, (the carboplatin is a cousin of the cisplatin medication that Dave received last year). He will also be getting Erbitux on a weekly basis. This medication is a targeted therapy drug, and is classified a "monoclonal antibody" and "signal transduction inhibitor" by binding to epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR). It is used to treat metastatic cancer that over-expresses the EGFR.

All three of these medications are to be given by (IV) at the infusion center at the Cooper cancer center in Akron. All of the treatments are to start on Monday, Aug. 2, 2010.

Our next visit was a scheduled visit with the radiation oncologist for followup. We were released to an as needed basis with him.

Would like to send special thanks to my mom for sending us a new pool liner for our pool, and to Dave for helping get it finished. It has been set up and is now swim ready, the kids and I had a great time swimming for the first time in one and a half years. The pool had been taken down for maintenance in 2008, just before we found out Dave had stage 4 laryngeal cancer. Thank you mom, we love you.

Thank you for your prayers of strength, healing, and patience on this new path. We love you and God Bless.

The Walk Has Begun Again

Once again I find myself sitting here trying to find the right words to write, so I will just start from the beginning. In Nov. 2008 my husband Dave was diagnosed with stage 4, level 3 squamous cell laryngeal cancer. In July, 2009 (prior blogs) his larynx was removed and there was no evidence of cancer. Dave returned to work in Nov. 2009 and was doing well, then in Feb. 2010 he was laid off. Dave no longer has health insurance now and was still undergoing follow up Pet/Ct scans and dr. visits at University Hosp. and the radiation oncologist here. Daves last Pet/CT scans in April, 2010 showed areas of concern on his lungs and an area of lymph nodes next to his esophagus. A biopsy was scheduled in May at which time we found out that Dr. Rezaee his ENT was unable to do, due to the location of the areas. We were then referred to a thoracic dr. by the name of Dr. Carsten Schroeder, also located at Univ. Hosp. Ireland Cancer Ctr. He performed the biopsies on his right lung, the dr. actually took about 7-10% of volume of his right lung, he also did a pericaridal window (drained fluid from the cardiac sack)of and Dave was in the hosp. for 5 days. I was fortunate enough to stay at Hope Lodge next to the hosp. for those 5 days. Dave has recovered from that surgery and doing well.

Now fast forward to today. It seemed like it went by really fast because of all the activity. We left for Cleveland this morning to see Dr. Rezaee for Daves usual follow up and to discuss test results, not in detail though that was done by Dr. Schroeder. Things moved fast from there, Dr. Rezaee had a oncologist stop in to see Dave and work out a time to see him, which is next Thur. the 15th. Dave then had to zip up to radiology for a chest x-ray, and then on to Dr. Schroeders office.

We all set down to discuss the results of Daves biopsies. Unfortunately it was not the news we wanted to hear. Dave has metastatic squamous cell carcinoma, meaning metastasis that is away from the original location. The cancer cells in the lung were delivered there by Daves bloodstream. They are considering it stage 4, which is what the laryngeal was staged. Dave does have fluid in his lungs which also takes away from his lung function. The next step is the appt. with the chemotherapy dr. on Thursday at which time we will find out all treatment options available to Dave, and also the prognosis and any further details. Thank you for all your prayers, we love you and God Bless.