Debra's Update June 27th

Casey and I met with Dr. Fabian on Wednesday. She agreed that due to my reaction to the maintenance drug, Tykerb, I should not take it again at this time. Even if we decrease the dosage I will still probably have a bad reaction. This was fine with me. I am just now feeling better. The rash is almost gone and my head has FINALLY stopped itching. YEA!!

The CT scan is once again stable. The spots are still there, but very small. They've been the same size now since my original treatment cycle ended. We are assuming they are inactive dead cells, but Dr. Fabian can't say for sure. Our original PET Scan (which measures activity) was negative. So, we can't really trust subsequent tests.

This leaves us with two options. One is to switch back to Herceptin and Xeloda as maintenance drugs. With this we would just keep monitoring that the spots do not get bigger and start growing again. Eventually they could even disappear if they are truly just dead cells at this point.

Our second option it to be more aggressive and do another round of chemo, just in case cancer cells are still present. Of course I chose this option. I just really want them gone to give me some piece of mind. So, we'll try a new chemo drug (brand name Gemzar), in addition to Herceptin. We'll do three cycles, for a total of nine weeks. Hopefully at the end of the nine weeks when we do another CT scan, the spots are gone and we can comfortably switch to the maintenance drugs.

Thanks as always for your continued thoughts and prayers!! A friend of ours reminded us that her husband was one of the "ones" to beat Stage IV cancer. He's been healthy for 28 years! So, that is our goal.... to join him as one of the "ones" who beat the odds!!