February 06, 2009

Bobbie Update - Feb 6, 2009

Many have asked me how Bobbie is doing over the past couple of weeks and I have answered most individually.  I have been meaning to type up an update, but it just seems like such a task each time I bring up the blank page to do so that I postpone.  So, I've decided to keep it fairly simple with what information we have and leave the remainder for later as information continues to become available.

Bobbie is doing pretty well in terms of recovering from the abdominal surgery and brain procedure.  As expected, plenty of pain in her abdomen from the surgery, but she is fairly mobile and most medium strenuous activities give her cause to offer a groan.  She has spent all but 2 days of the 2 weeks following surgery at my parents' house recovering with Killian in company as planned.  Hopefully this has afforded her some of the rest that she needs to heal well and without having to keep to close of an eye on Killian.  I will be heading up to VA tomorrow to pick her and Killian up to come back to NC.  As always, a HUGE thank you to my parents for their efforts and accommodations to this end.

And the difficult question... what's next?  She had two appointments this past Monday, one with her medical oncologist that she has been seeing since the original discovery in 2006 and another with the surgical oncologist that performed the intestinal operation.  I attended the medical oncologist appointment and her mom went with her to the surgical oncologist.  I will spare you the play-by-play, but the outcome is that there are seemingly two treatment options on the table.  One is Temodar (Temozolomide) , an oral chemotherapy by way of capsule.  The gist is that you take it 5 days in a row, wait 23 days and do it again.  The hope being that it stops the tumor growth and, in low percentage best case scenarios, causes regression in the tumors.  The other is interleukin-2 .  We don't have a lot of detail about that one yet, but apparently it has the potential to be a curative treatment.  It was explained by the doctor suggesting it that the interleukin-2 treatment is particularly rough with a 5-day intensive care unit hospital stay due to a chance of cardiac failure.  In my reading of the link that I included above, it appears that there are a number of scary potential side effects, but that they are all relatively easily managed medically during the course (thus the ICU, I assume).  The explained side effects of the Temodar are your basic chemo ones; nausea, hair loss, constipation/diarrhea, etc..

As it stands, the two doctors are in discussion as to what they suggest we do from here and she waits for a phone call with their answer.  If the interleukin-2 is an option, we will likely be traveling to Charlotte, NC to meet with a doctor there since that is the closest hospital to us that offers the treatment.  She has an appointment sometime in the next two weeks with one of the doctors that performed the cyberknife treatment.  That may bring further input/insight.  So, at this very moment we are not quite sure what comes next.  As always, however, I keep my mind looking forward to whatever the next step will be.  Bobbie remains in good spirits, which helps us all.

So, there you have it and you can probably see why I have resisted sending an update as there is not really any news to be had at the moment.  Well, nothing solid at least.  Sorry to keep you all waiting for so long, but I know that many of you have been in touch with Bobbie directly and possibly received some of this info by way of her.  I will send out another update once we know in which direction we are headed or if there are any additional developments.

A continuing thank you to all.