Dear all,
Somehow daily life is so absorbing and tiring that we haven’t managed to bring people up to date. I’ll try to write a juicier post soon, but until then, here’s the basics:
Val is slowly recovering strength and verve. It’s funny how we can be simultaneously so grateful (especially after the harrowing bloody weeks at the end of October) and so frustrated and impatient to rejoin the swim of life.
She is done with the hard-hitting, mitosis-interrupting chemo drugs (Paclitaxel and Carboplatin). Eventually her fast-growing cells (mucus membranes, hair, digestive doohickeys, etc.) will start growing normally again. This could take a month or two.
As a member of the Apomab clinical trial, she’ll continue treatment with rounds of Apomab (which targets death receptor five, essentially telling confused cells to die) and its companion drug, Avastin (the anti-angiogenesis drug, which interferes with the formation of new blood vessels). If all continues smoothly she’ll be infused with these two drugs about every three weeks for a total of 34 cycles, which should take a total of about two years. She has already been receiving these two drugs as part of her chemo cocktail, which accounted for the first six cycles. This week (Wednesday) she had her first treatment of just the two drugs. All went fairly well although the removal of the drip needle left her with a subdural hematoma (a startling bulge that subsided to a lovely big bruise on the inside of her wrist).
The plan this week is that Val will take a road trip to see Kim in Tahoe and Karen in San Francisco. On Friday, shortly before Val returns (which will be Sunday-ish), I’ll be heading to Oaxaca, Mexico to meet up with my mom and sister for Thanksgiving week.
Stay tuned for further developments.
D