Christian's Cancer Journey

  This is definitely one of the harder videos I've had to make. Some good news about the new regimen. Some not so great news about my position at work. Thank you all for the prayers, love, and support.  With Love, Christian

Hey Everyone, Just wanted to share that the chemo pills (Cabozantinib) and the immunotherapy drug (Durvalumab) were both approved by my insurance! I am going to start the new regimen on Monday, April 25. I have to be at the Cancer Center at 2:30 pm to get my port accessed, meet with Dr. Paluri, and then begin treatment.  I am so thankful that my team was on top of this and the approval process didn't take that long. Please continue to pray that this new treatment will be effective enough to shrink these tumors. I am nervous about taking the chemo pill everyday, but Dr. Paluri said it is usually fairly well tolerated. The immunotherapy infusion will be every 4 weeks. I hope everyone has a great weekend. We are going on a little camping trip with my sister and her family. I am definitely looking forward to relaxing a little before getting back to it on Monday. With Love, Christian 

We got to the hospital at 7:30am this morning. Christian had her port accessed, labs drawn, and then we went down to Radiology for the CT Scan. She got the CT done, and had her port de-accessed. It was around 9am then. We had an hour to kill before her 10am meeting with Dr. Paluri, so we walked over to Starbucks and got a coffee. We met with Dr. Paluri and he went over the results of the CT Scan, the CEA & CA19-9 Levels, and the next step on the path moving forward. First, the CEA & CA19-9 levels are once again elevated. Second, the CT Scan showed us that there were no new nodules in the lungs or the liver, but what was already there has grown. The tumor marker levels being more elevated, and the enlargement of the tumors was enough to make the decision that the current chemo regimen is not being effective to stop (or shrink) the cancer. Since the current chemo regmins are not effective, we need to change gears here, so Dr. Paluri presented another option. It is a different typ

 Hi all, it has been a little while since we have posted. She had her 15th round on March 21st. If you have been keeping up, you know she was given Folfox (Oxaliplatin & 5FU) for that cycle. She did not have any cold sensitivity (which usually lasts a few days) at all with that round. She also did not have any increase in the lingering neuropathy from that cycle. The fatigue however was something else. Out of the 15 rounds she had done, none of them had wiped her energy the way it did. As usual, it starts hitting hard middle of the day on Wednesday after treatment, and lasted until mid-day Friday. That is when she begins to see signs of improvement, and it is usually mid-day or end of day Saturday before she starts feeling back to her normal self. So that is the catch-up on the last cycle. She had #16 (Folfox again) this past Monday. She doesn't have enough fingers to hold up a 1 and a 6, so she did the "strong arm selfie" instead. It is something that has been shared