Update from Texas

As I mentioned earlier in the week, our family needed prayers. The special intention was for (is for) my aunt and uncle in Texas. I received an "unofficial" update, which had not been passed on to the rest of the family yet (especially my grandmother), and I didn't want to post it until I knew my grandma heard the news. (While I don't think she comes by the blog much at all, it is bookmarked on her computer, so if she did click by, I didn't want her to see the news here.)

Here is the latest update from my family in Texas. Thank you for praying for them, and thank you for continuing to pray for them.

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Howdy, all.

We had our visit to MD Anderson this past Tuesday, as scheduled. The news on the recent MRI was not great and so we are going to change to a different therapy. The doctor reported that the tumor has grown and has crossed the midline of the brain. Previously, it had been on the right side and now it has entered the left side as well.

The doc said there was no reason to continue the Temodar/Accutane chemo protocol that we've been following for the past two months since it did not seem to have affected the tumor. He suggested following a chemo/antibody therapy that was used in one of their clinical trials (experiments) that was recently completed. He said that it showed very promising results...

As it stands now, B****** will start this therapy in the upcoming week. It's administered by infusion once every two weeks. We don't know whether it'll be done as an outpatient at the hospital or in the cancer clinic. It just depends upon what the doc learns as opposed to how things are reimbursed. He is almost positive that BC/BS will not pay for this because it's still considered "experimental". I believe the $$ lingo is that it's considered to be "off-label" use. Interestingly, today's paper reported that the antibody medicine, Avastin, was just approved by the FDA for use in breast cancer cases. It had previously been approved for use in colon and lung cancer.

After three of these once-every-two-week treatments we will have another MRI and then go back to MD Anderson so that they can determine whether it has been effective.

All in all, not tremendous news. I sometimes feel as if we were on a roller coaster, and on some days it seems that there are more lows than highs. Still, we're enjoying every day. We cherish one another's company and every moment we spend together. We are so grateful for everyone's support and prayers. We are blessed to have a healthy little grandson who seems to have invented the smile and we thank God every day that our sons K**** and C**** are surrounded by such wonderful people at St. ********* High School. There are lots of good things going on and we focus on them rather than on B******'s illness. We're just moving forward with this new treatment. We'll also be attending a healing ministry at our church in a couple of days. Healing comes in all sorts - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual - and we're asking for whatever we can receive.

Thanks for all the offers of assistance, the thoughts, and the prayers. Today is a good day, so go hug and kiss your loved ones. Make the world a better place.

Love, B*****, B*******, and the boys

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