First of all, the bad news, mainly because I want to end this on an up note.  One of my chemo buddies from when I started, Chip, passed away this weekend.  I just found this out tonight.  It really bummed me out, because Chip was always somewhat of a ray of sunshine at chemo.  He was always upbeat and smiling and never thought negative.  He helped organize a charity event that I know raised a LOT of money for City of Hope this past weekend and when it was ready to launch, he wasn’t healthy enough to attend.  I was able to go, and talked to both Chip’s mother and sister, who were proud of the turnout for the event, but saddened by Chip’s inability to see the fruits of his labors.  R.I.P. Chip, you inspired me.

In a complete 180 degree turn from that info, I found out that my cancer markers, which started out at 860 two years ago, dropped to 77 at one point, then went back up to 648 in January, has now dropped yet again.  After four treatments, my new cancer marker number is…….(prolonged drumroll)……..36.  That’s right, 36!  I’ve been doing a happy dance all freaking day!  I talked to my nurse practitioner and she told me that if my numbers get down to single digits (everything under 5 is considered normal) and stay there for a while, I might be considered to be in remission.  Here’s hoping!

We went down to San Diego last week to investigate a new treatment for Jeff.  It sounds very promising and Jeff seems to be a likely candidate.  It is called SIRT Spheres.  It is done very similar to an angiogram.  Jeff would need to go in and have dye injected through the groin to inspect the arteries in Jeff’s liver.  They have to be able to tell where the arteries go.  They can block off some arteries to the stomach and intestines, but they can’t block the arteries going to the lungs.  The lungs can’t take more than 20% of the radiation so if more than that would go into his lungs, he would not be a candidate.  There are two major arteries feeding the liver.  The portal vein and the hepatic artery.  For some reason, the tumors like the hepatic artery.  If Jeff’s arteries are good for the procedure, he would then go back to the hospital for another angiogram.  This time, they would inject small spheres of radiation through the hepatic arteries which would then seek out only the tumors, delivering the dose of radiation right into the tumors.  The procedure has been used for 5 years and so it is not new and has proven very successful.  The doctors were excited to see Jeff because most of the patients that they see are in their last stages.  We have talked to Jeff’s oncologist and he is also on board. 

 They want to give Jeff a few more doses of chemotherapy and then he would need to be off of chemo for 2-3 weeks before the procedure.  We are looking at May for several reasons.  It would give Jeff more time to do the chemo which also seems to be working (and HE IS OFF OF ALL PAIN MEDS, just an occasional breakthrough pill, Kaiser had him on 60 mg of Morphine morning and night!), but I digress.

The bad news was Medi-Cal will pay for the procedure, but not the medication.  The medication is made specifically for Jeff and comes from Australia or New Zealand (We were told both places, one by the nurse and one by the Doctor)  And the bad news is, the  medication costs approximately $10,000 and Jeff would need 2 doses, one for each side of the liver.  There is a 5% chance it could cause liver failure so that is why, they only do one side so that they don’t damage the whole liver.  So, on May 1, Jeff becomes eligible for Medicare (we already have his card) and Medicare will pay 80% leaving us with approximately $2000 for each procedure—still a stretch, but we’ll work on that.  We are SOOOOOO excited.   The doctors say if we can get his liver cancer under control, the colon is no problem.

Any way, just needed to share the news with everyone.  Sorry it took so long, but we all got sick starting the day back from San Diego—–Maybe it was the shock.  Anyway, Rich and Shelly are back to work, I was the last one to get sick so not quite over it yet, hopefully tomorrow.  Jeff just got a mild case, I think most of his problem was weaning off the pain meds.  It was very necessary since he slept through the whole visit in San Diego which is why I am writing this since he can’t remember anything from that day!

In case you haven’t guessed, this is Nancy,  Jeff’s mom, writing this.