The New Normal (aka Nevermind)

The Friday before Thanksgiving, Rob and I met with the surgeon about the procedure to put a stent in my liver. We had quite a long discussion and she showed us the scans from September and last week. It turns out that Vectibix has been so successful at reducing the tumors that she did not feel that it was advisable to do the procedure (even though it was already scheduled for the Monday before Thanksgiving.) While the “before” shot clearly showed three big, ugly tumors that prevented her from accessing the correct bile duct in September, the “after” shot showed not only remarkable tumor shrinkage but the duct obstruction was almost completely gone. As a result, she felt that she would not be able to find the exact spot to place the stent – and evidently they have to be positioned rather exactly. Further, stents don’t last forever. They can themselves become clogged and require intervention and, on the average, are normally only good for 6 to 9 months. So, after some discussion with Dr. S, we decided to forgo the stent at this time and just monitor the situation. Hopefully, in the future, if we can catch a blockage earlier, I can do a stent then.


This Tuesday, I went in for another round of Vectibix, which went without a hitch. Curiously, my billies only fell from 2.2 to 1.8 mg/dl. In fact, there are a number of liver readings still out of whack but it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to do about it at this time. Maybe I will never make it back to “normal” but I suppose it doesn’t matter as long as I have no complications or turn yellow. As a result, I am declaring this fall’s little crisis over – this is the new normal – and I’m back to doing, you know, whatever it was I was doing before my “yellow” period. I’m going to just go on with life with only half an eye fixed on my blood work. And to prove it, here’s a photo of me waiting at a café on 53rd street while they mix my meds!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I’m sure thankful to have had one – and what a fine meal it was! BB

Nevermi....well, not quite yet....

Robbie and I saw the onc yesterday and got the results of the CT scan I had last Friday. Dr. S was very upbeat, saying that the scan looks very, very good and that my bilirubin level is now down to 2! I was hoping for a 1 (and an all-clear sign), but 2 sure is better than the 32 from last month. He said that the scan shows an area that is still blocked and that he forwarded the results to the surgeons for evaluation. They now say that the procedure which was technically impossible last month is do-able because the tumor shrinkage that Vectibix has provided gives them room to work. So, Dr. S set up an appointment for me to see the surgeon on Friday.


The goal of the surgery would be to insert a stent into my liver to hold open the bile duct. The procedure is “minimally invasive”, using some kind of needle to insert the stent rather than making a big incision. That’s sounds good. Dr. S did not go over the procedure in detail, however, as the surgeon – actually a doctor of “Interventional Radiology” - will explain it tomorrow. Also, it seems that Dr. S feels that the Vectibix alone might actually get me to an all-clear but, in order to ward off problems in the future, I should have the stent inserted now, while there’s room to get it done. Tomorrow I’ll get the full picture of what it’s all about and – I assume – will set up an appointment sometime soon to have it done. In any event, we are very close to getting clear and very optimistic that this will soon all be behind us.

So, it was all good news yesterday and I polished it off with another dose of the hamster juice. I must say that I like the fact that Vectibix is pretty easy on the digestive system. These last few visits, Rob and I have gone out for dinner in the neighborhood after treatment. We’ve hit the tapas place, a new sushi bar and, last night, Chinese (I can now recommend the Taiwanese Mei Fun at “Ginger” on East 55th). Makes the long day of hanging around the clinic seem more worth it!

Staying Moist, Getting Clear

We met with the onc last Tuesday for the usual check up and chemo and the good news is that my billies have trailed down a bit more to about 6 mg/dl. A very good sign but still not quite there. I am hoping that the dose I got Tuesday will be enough to push me clear and I will finally be done with this problem. An added benefit of Vectibix, though, is that it’s much milder on the body than the other things I’ve taken. No nausea or digestive issues – just the rash. And I have found that the antibiotics and the moisturizing do a pretty good job of keeping that at bay. I moisturize now more than a Swedish model…it’s part of my daily beauty regiment!!


Anyway, that’s all good and I hope it will all pay off with an “all clear” in two weeks. This past weekend, however, I did have a physical breakdown where my liver pain flared up as bad as it had ever been and I spent most of the day Monday exhausted in bed. I was worried that it was a sign that the Vectibix had stopped working. But Dr. S thinks that I have an “intratumoral bleed” which is to say that somehow I mashed one of the tumors and it’s acting up. He told me that the pain should subside in 3 to 5 days and that I should not curtail my physical activity – I thought perhaps I did it shoveling some snow last weekend or building a fire when we had no power. He said I could have done it then or by sneezing or rolling over in bed or any of a million other ways. So, I should stay the course on trying to push myself physically. And, I think he was right – the pain has dropped off significantly in the last couple of days.

So, we are still on course…just need to be patient (never my strong suit)…and keep eating, moving about and moisturizing! Hope you have all weathered the big October snows (if you got hit). We had a fair amount of tree damage but nothing major and even got our power back after just one day – much luckier than many friends and neighbors who have only come back online in the last day or so. Enjoy the weekend!