Please Specifically Pray for Me

It's me again. I finished the radiation to the brain stem yesterday....YEAH! And I cannot properly express my thanks to all the people who blessed me with rides to my two-a-day appointments! What a Godsend!

I spoke to Dr. Tannehill after my last appointment yesterday. I had some difficult questions to ask of him and the answers were more or less disappointing, to say the least. Hence, this blog entry.

Back in March of this year I finished my first initial brain radiation treatments. They targeted the whole brain at that time. My first scan afterwards was in May and showed a reduction in the main large tumor by half. Awesome! Was incredibly pleased. However, in August, I had another scan and it showed that the tumor had not only grown back to the original size, it had incorporated itself into my nerve bundles in my brain stem. It looked like a jellyfish type parasite taking over my brain stem. NOT GOOD.

Now, if you weren't aware, you are not supposed to radiate the same tissue twice. It increases the risk of necrosis (tissue death). Dr. Tannehill said that if you polled all the radiation oncologists in the country, about 70% would not have done the second round of radiation to my brain stem. The risk would be too high. Scaredy-cats. :-)

For me, I didn't hesistate at all. I agreed to it. All these treatments that I have been through the last 18 months straight have risks. If I didn't take them, it would be like giving up! I'm not a quitter. I trust God to take me when He is ready, not when the Dr.'s or treatments say.

Anyway, let's get back to the issue at hand. You see, I believe my tumor has responded to the second round of radiation, just like it did after the first round. The problem is, if let's say, in three months it has grown again, they cannot radiate it again. It's also in-operable because of how it has entangles itself around the nerves.

Needless to say, I may be out of options. Most, if not all chemos, don't cross the blood brain barrier. I've been on Herception for a year now which is an antibody to kill the HER2 protein. And then I was put on Tykerb, the only other HER2 fighting drug which was supposed to cross the blood brain barrier. Obviously, the Tykerb did not work.

However, my medical oncologist is running a clinical trial on an experimental drug for HER2 positive patients, where, while on Herceptin, the cancer has spread. This hopefully will be an alternative to Tykerb for future HER2+ patients. In order for me to qualify for this trial though, my cancer has to be stable (not growing or spreading). And because it is an experimental drug, they don't really know if it will cross the blood brain barrier. I'm hoping it does.

So, all that to say, could you please specifically pray that:

1). My tumor in the brain stem does not grow AT ALL. And if it does, it grows INCREDIBLY SLOW. :-)
2). That I qualify for the clinical trial.
3). That the experimental drug is a success at fighting HER2+ cancer AND crosses the blood brain barrier.

I really appreciate all of you helping me in prayer. And don't worry, I'm going to try anything they are willing to throw at me, regardless. I won't quite fighting.

All my love and God Bless you!