Chemo 30

We left San Marcos at 0730 Monday morning. I never noticed the endless wall of graffiti on the west side of I-710. It is actually quite artistic. Must take a video cam some time.

It is a riot to listen to Val as she chastizes Chris for his driving habits. He is the best driver around but insists on riding 2" from the HOV wall at 80 MPH while doing business on the Blackberry. For all you NASCAR fans, I think they should make it a rule that wives have to ride shotgun at 200 mph.

We arrived at 0945 and went into the Day hospital for a blood draw. Praise God, the port that usually refuses to give us any blood cooperated. I hate the alternative of getting stuck for blood.

Although the waiting room was filled, we waited only 5 minutes before being called for our consult with Taleen and Dr. Lenz. Val's weight was 110, up 3 pounds from our last visit. Her ascites is reduced so this translates to muscle mass. Good news.

Total bilirubin was 3.4. A slight increase from the last reading (2) weeks ago. Liver enzymes were improved at ALT 42 and AST 60. Val is scheduled for a stent change in early April at Cedars Sinai. This should drop the total Bili. to less than 2.

Dr. Lenz advised us against using Chemoembolization. He doesn't think it is target specific. Apparently there is some type of foam that enters the liver and affects everything. As an alternative, he recommended Intra Arterial Chemo (IA) using Cisplatin and Mytomycin. This is an interventional radiology procedure.

He is strong on continuing the systemic treatment of chemotherapy since it reaches all areas of the body that may have cancer cells. He would like to use SIR Spheres, however, the Bili. must be below 2.0

We decided to go ahead with the Avastin. They have reduced the infusion time from 30 to 10 minutes. Val is on the 5FU pump for 48 hours. This interrupts TPN infusion.

We were out at 2pm. On the way to the car we ran into Sue Hanks, the USC Interventional Radiologist. We talked to her about Dr. Lenz' opinions. She is still a good resource.

Putting everything in context, we have some studying, thinking, and praying to do before we are ready to choose a path forward. It seems that Dr. rose and dr. Lenz are a bit at odds with treatment protocols. Both are widely respected in their field, but Dr. Rose is a Radiologist and is more professionally skilled in this matter than Dr. Lenz.

Yesterday was our (Nancy and I) 42nd wedding anniversary. Congratulations Nancy on putting up with my disfunctional antics for so long. You are the 2nd love of my life.