Happily Everolimus

We have been very busy since my last post.  Let's see...where did I leave off?  Oh, yes..I was telling you about how the Topotecan wasn't working.  Denny went ahead and finished the week of chemo ending with a shot of Nulasta on Friday.( Nulasta helps his white cell count). He was feeling tired and somewhat nauseous through the days of chemo.  However, he seemed to perk up on Saturday.

Our friends, Bob and Linda Buechel, flew in Saturday morning to spend the day with us.  Bob and Denny went to college at Rolla and were in different fraternities together. Haha!  They have remained the best of friends all these years.  When I married Denny, they adopted me into the crowd and here we are.  They are hilariously fun and we enjoyed every moment with them.  We made bets on the Belmont horse race and used the winnings to have a great dinner at Famous Dave's. (Pictured above)
The day went by so quickly.  They flew home on Sunday morning but the memories we made that day are wonderful!

Denny ate more in the hours we were with them than he had in a week.  When we saw Dr. Murphy this morning, he had to weigh in.  He has already lost 5 pounds since the beginning of June. I said, "Denny, this is not good.  You are losing too much weight."  He said, "I can only eat so much.  I feel bloated all the time." He has lost a total of 25 pounds since the beginning of May.

As I mentioned, we met with Dr. Murphy today.  She is taking Topotecan off the table now.  It is no longer working. She has also scheduled him for an MRI tomorrow night at 7pm.  This is to get a baseline on where the tumor is now.  If his labs come back good on Monday, June 16th, she will start him on the chemo identified through Foundation One through the biopsy.  Since it is not approved for head & neck cancer, she will have to get it through the samples pharmacy.  Our insurance will not pay for a non-FDA approved therapy so she said she was going to see what she could do.  It is very costly but I know she will come up with something.  The name of the drug is "Everolimus". (Pronounced: Ever-o-lime-us)  Brand name is Afinitor.  She said we need to pray that this works.  It is our last line of defense.  She will keep looking for other therapies but doesn't have any possibilities in the horizon.

Yes, this is a very scary time for TheWoodruff4.  In Church on Sunday as I was listening to the sermon, I was surfing through the pew bible.  Isn't it a coincidence that this verse caught my eye?

Proverbs 17:22 - "A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones."

I take this to mean that we should stay positive and not get pulled under by fear.  So, TheWoodruff4 will continue to live each moment; savor the time and cherish the memories.  We will not lose hope until the last minute of the last breath...