Hello everyone—
Well, I had my CT scan on Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon Aetna called to say they denied my PET scans again. Needless to say, we are appealing again (this time directly with Richard’s employer who owns the group plan).
Yesterday a nurse practitioner (not my usual one) called from my oncologist’s office with the results, but she is not familiar with my case, so she was hesitant to answer my questions. It seems like mostly good news, but I won’t know everything until Monday, when my doc is back in the office. The best part is that the CT shows no new growth, and that many of the lesions in my lungs are shrinking. The not so great part is that it looks like the main mass grew a centimeter, and there is some more fluid in my lung. I’m not worried about the fluid too much, because fluid is a side effect of the Gemzar. I am confused about the growth in the main mass, though, and will have some questions for my doc on Monday. She couldn’t find any reference in the report to the two spots on my lungs that were being tracked before (the one had shrunk to the point where it was undetectable by PET or CT and the other was almost undetectable). I’m hoping that’s because they were undetectable, and not because it’s a different radiologist reading the scan, but again I should know more on Monday. I’m assuming I’ll be continuing with chemo, but until I talk with the doc nothing is for sure. Please do keep me in your prayers, and I will report back next week. Thanks so much for all your support!

Hi Everyone--
Well on Thursday I finished round 6 on Gemzar. Since I still have not been approved by Aetna for a PET scan, I am having a CT scan on Thursday. A CT will not really give us enough information, but it will give us size. We are hoping to hear of an approval from Aetna in time to get the scan changed to a PET this week. Either way, I will hopefully be having some news by either the end of this week or beginning of next. Please do keep me in your prayers, as it has been four months since my last scan, and we are hoping for more good news. This week is incredibly busy, as we are in tech week for our musical to open next week. Keeping busy is good. I hope to have good news to share with you soon! Thank you so much for all your thoughts, prayers and support.

Hello friends! It's been quite a while since my last blog. I have had my hands full with so much going on. Back in November I started having pain in my chest (in the place where my port used to be). They did an ultrasound, x-ray and bloodwork and came up with nothing. Finally they diagnosed the problem as Costochondritis, a condition where the cartilage around my sternum became inflamed and was rubbing against the bone. They said it was not uncommon for someone that had had radiation where I did. Unfortunately it took them 5 weeks to figure this out, and I was on Advil & other pain killers to get me through every day of it. They put me on Celebrex and it seems to be managing the pain, but the pain is still there. I also developed anemia (my hemoglobin went as low as 8.6, and my doc was pushing for a transfusion. I didn't want it, and took the Aranesp shot to boost my levels instead. It worked. I'm now back into the 10.7 range and holding (still low, but ok). Thursday will complete round 5 on Gemzar, and my doc would like to do another PET scan the following week, but now we have run into another issue. Aetna has decided they don't want to pay for my PET scans ($3300 each). It's interesting that they pay for PET scans on other types of cancer, but for some reason they consider PET scans to be "experimental" when it comes to my rare "thymic" cancer. We are already at the second-level appeal phase. Please keep us in your prayers, because I need these scans to make sure my treatments are still working and monitor my current situation. I have been feeling fine through the chemo, with minor side effects that haven't really hindered my lifestyle too much, so I'm very thankful to God for that. I'm hoping to get a PET scan soon and some more good news to go with it! I'll keep you posted...

Prayers answered

Hello everyone,
I can't tell you the great pleasure it gives me to share this news with you. I had my PET/CT scan this morning, and already by this afternoon my doctor's office called with miraculous news! My main tumor has shrunk in activity from 14.6 to a mere 2.8! The nodules on my lungs that they use to track progress have gone way down. In fact the one in the right upper lobe is COMPLETELY UNDETECTABLE by PET or by CT. The one on the lower left lobe is almost to the same point of being undetectable. All the nodules are shrinking in their activity and many in size too! Your prayers, love and support have all been the reason for this and I thank you and of course I thank God!
The plan now is to continue with this chemo drug (Gemzar). This week is my week off, and next week I will start round three. We will continue until we get into full remission, and I KNOW that we will get there! Thanks, everyone!!

Hello everyone. Well, Thursday I had the 3rd dose of Gemzar in the second round of this new chemo drug. Things have gone well. My hair is hanging in and I very minimal water retention. I've tolerated the drug well, so if it works I should be able to continue on with it as long as I need to. On Monday morning I will have a PET/CT scan to show what both the radiation over the summer and this chemo drug have done. I feel confident going into it, but of course I ask for your prayers as I await more news this week. I should know the results by Halloween or the day after, and will update again then. I thank you so much for all your love and support!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last update. We just finished our third week of the school year and things have been busy as usual. I finished radiation on August 20th with no problems. It was a piece of cake compared to chemo. Now I am back on chemo, this time with the drug Gemzar. We will be taking a scan in mid-October to see where I’m at from both the radiation and chemo. I’m tired (and a little sick) from the chemo, but so far I’m functioning just fine. This drug is given through IV once a week for three weeks with the fourth week off. It should not make me lose my hair, but there is the possibility of severe water retention. So far I have not experienced any of that, and hope that I will not. Your prayers continue to be a great help to me, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. God is walking with me every step of this long road, and I am doing just fine.

August 10, 2007

Hello everyone, so sorry it's been so long. Things are crazy getting ready for school to begin. Well, I now have only 7 radiation treatments left (ending on Mon., Aug. 20th). Things have really gone great so far. No burns on my skin, but I've started to have what I call "the worst heartburn known to mankind." My radiation oncologist put me on two prescriptions to hopefully help that because unless I'm drinking plain water everything else pretty much feels like acid going down. Hmm...maybe it will help me lose some WEIGHT!!! :) Otherwise I'm good. I met with my regular oncologist on Wednesday. He said the radiation would probably make me quite tired the week after I'm done (which will be the first week of school--oh yay), and that we can get back to chemo as soon as possible. I'm going to meet with the nurse for the chemo teaching on the next drug next week and then get started right after we start school (either the last week of August or the first week of September). He doesn't think I'll lose my hair with this one, but it will mean going to Walnut Creek once a week for infusion before school; three weeks on/one week off. I don't think it will be too bad. I'm up for the fight. I will not have any results for a while on the radiation, as they said we have to wait six weeks after the last radiation treatment before a PET scan, because it keeps working that long. It is miraculous that my blood levels have still never dropped and have remained basically normal through everything! I really feel great and believe I'm going to win this fight. I know I feel that way because of all your prayers and support. I thank God for all the friends and family I have with me on this journey! Love to you all! I'll update again when I have more news (probably September).