Well, here we are again - the yearly update.

OK, so I decided to start a new segment on Poziotinib, because....it seems to be working!

Well, the good news is that we are back from Israel and had a wonderful trip seeing our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson.  They are such a blessing.

And, we should be able to finally schedule a meeting at MD Anderson in the next day or two.

But - now that we are back.......

25 year old male, 8 year tobacco/marijuanna smoker, for the past couple months ive been having upper right back pain, behind my shoulder. The pain is very dull and achy almost like a muscle strain, not severe or sharp at all. im not using any pain medications and my pain tolorance isnt that high and i still sleep well. i rarely feel a faint tingle going down my right arm, it comes and goes but the upper back/scapula discomfort is always there in the spot that feels like my thorasic outlet. never severe but noticeable.

So....

We met with the oncologist today and said he had discussed the case with his tumor board and with the past trial oncologist.

He laid out several possibilities:

Keep going with Kadcyla and see what happens with the growing (and other tumors).

Irradiate the growing liver lesion and then continue with Kadcyla

Well, my wife has been having some hip pain recently, so our oncologist wanted to do a CT scan sooner than would normally be done.

The good news - there doesn't seem to be anything going in the lungs, and the bone metastases areas seem unchanged.  Our guess is that the hip pain is more related to nerve side effect problems (the neuropathy from the Kadcyla is slowly getting worse) and not cancer.  My wife thinks this is likely since the pain is sporadic (not constant as it was when there was cancer there) and treatable with motrin.

My wife got her first CT scan back from the Kadcyla treatment.  Classified as stable overall!!  The lung remains the same - seems to be just small fragmented lesions at this point with nothing new or growing.  No new metasteses, and the liver is stable overall, everything looks about the same - one lesion decreased in size, one increrased a bit, but they think that might be due to the angle of the scan.

So, on with more Kadcyla treatments!!

Well, the first CT scan with Kadcyla is still a month or more away, so ne news there.

My wife is feeling great, so we are hoping the next CT will be good news.

But, I did want to share with everyone at GRACE some other good news - our joy in announcing our first grandchild.  As the saying goes, Mother and Father and Child are doing fine.

Since my wife's diagnosis we have shared many joyous moments, including our daughter's wedding and now our daughter's first child.

Aaahh...sigh.....

Once more we are where we were a couple of years ago.  The CT scan came back with mixed results.  The lung, head, and bones show no change, but the liver results are mixed.

Some liver lesions are the same or slightly decreased in size, while others have grown, with an increase in small new tumors surrounding them.  The oncologist is deciding the options and talking to the clinical trial oncologist we have worked with.  Clearly seeing the effect of mutation right before our eyes.

Well, here we are - 4 years after that dreaded initial diagnosis.  I wasn't sure at the time whether my wife and I would be here together 4 years later, but indeed we are.  1 year, 1 day, 1 treatment at a time.  After 4 years, though, I now know that I will never forget the feelings from those first couple of weeks.