Now that Roger has started and been on the clinical trial for almost two months, we are not allowed to conceive naturally. One of the clinical trial drugs causes birth defects as it alters genes, DNA, yadda, yadda. And yes, I'm going to share this because I keep getting asked, the only form of birth control that is clinical trial approved are condoms because obviously I have to be off birth control pills in order to get pregnant and they don't want us to take any chances of getting pregnant. Now that we cannot conceive naturally, the next option is artificial insemination. I visited my the ob-gyn/midwife practice we use and although they are interested in starting to do this procedure in their office, I decided I did not want to be their first since they will not be doing any testing of reproductive capabilities and just doing the insemination. Since I have never been pregnant I do not know if I can get pregnant and I'd like to have that checked before we start using up the nine chances we have saved at the cryobank. Now we have to get referred to a fertility center and we found out last week none of the fertility centers in Austin accept our insurance. After an interesting phone conversation with our insurance, their solution is for our primary care manager (PCM) to refer us to a fertility center here in Austin anyway. The insurance will deny it then they have to find us a fertility center that accepts our insurance. I don't know how long that will take or if it's going to be that easy, but you know we will keep you informed here on the blog. We are asking for prayer for the wait and for God's direction through all of this process. We definitely don't want to do what we want but to do His will so we do what's best for His kingdom and His glory. If we are not meant to have children of our own and we are supposed to foster or adopt, that's what we want to do. And we'll definitely need clear direction for how far to go in this process and when we should stop. So please pray for us to go to God in every part of the process and listen to Him and to be have peace and joy with what He wants us to do.
As for Roger, he is almost done with the second cycle of the clinical trial (each cycle is 28 days). His first MRI, echo-cardiogram and blood tests at MD Anderson will be next Monday, October 4th. He will follow-up with his oncologist and the rest of the clinical trial gang on Tuesday. This meeting will most likely not be the decision making meeting to continue the trial. That will most likely be done at the end of the fourth cycle with the second MRI in December. Of course we'll keep everyone updated here on the blog.
So now you know what's going on with us and how to pray for us. We really appreciate the prayers. Thanks!
-Holly
From Roger: Wow, Holly is making me follow up her post with mine. No tears, sorry. Yes, so we had our one month follow-up. This was basically to see if my blood cell counts are okay and if so, to increase the chemo dosage. They didn't increase it a whole lot, but this may mean more stoppage while on the chemo and more fatigue. I snapped a picture of my daily regimen for you to admire. The first set of pills on the left are called Lapatinib. Each one of those orange monstrosities are 250mg of signal inhibiting goodness. This is the experimental drug that they have been using again breast cancer and certain types of melanomas. It has been promising for my tumor. I can't eat anything for two hours before I take these and for one hour afterward, so I just get up in the morning and take these first thing and don't eat anything for an hour. My experience so far with these has been okay. These leave me a little loose and I end up having diarrhea a few times a week. Other than that, they're not bad so far. The next row over are my daily 10am pills. Starting from the top is Depakote ER, then two Keppras, both anti-seizure drugs. Below that an allergy pill, kinda like Sudafed-D, but free (thank you taxpayers!) And lastly a multi-vitamin. I've been looking into taking better multivitamins and supplements from USANA, but more on that in another post. The next row to the right are my nightly 10pm pills - same anti-seizure pills that I take in the morning. And last but not least, the chemotherapy pills, Temodar. Everything else but these I take every day. One cycle of therapy is 28 days. I take the Temodar on days 1-7 and 15-21. I have to take them at night but only two hours after eating and then nothing afterward for one hour. In addition, I also take an anti-nausea pill called Zofran (the litttle pill to the left of the Temodar capsules) thirty minutes before I take the Temodar. I have not really had any issues with the Temodar yet except for constipation, but I have been able to combat that with a stool softener, like Colace. They warned me today that with the increased dosage I might be more constipated and might feel more nausea, but we'll see. I'm glad I got the constipation thing pretty much figured out with the Colace, because that was a rough first week.. I mean, have you ever pooped rocks before? It hurts... trust me.