I am lucky to have the support of so many good people with such great taste in cars!
OK, here is what I think is possible.
1) There is a standard immunotherapy treatment effective 50% of the time.
2) There is a clinical study I can go in which adds a 2nd drug that takes it to 70% effective.
However, there is only a 50% chance that I would be getting the 2nd drug as this is a blind study and the patients are assigned randomly to get the study so I don't know if I'm actually getting the 2nd drug.
Plus there is a whole bunch of pretesting each time you go in for treatment which is 2 weeks for the first 2 months and then every 3 weeks for the next 4 months. Blood work, CT scans etc. That takes two days as you have to have the test one day and the treatment the next. I live 6 hours away so it would be 3 or 4 days of time. I really don't want that sort of disruption on my life and my parenting of my son. not that dying isn't a disruption but you know what I mean. And who's lying that the expense of all that travelling, hotels etc. would be a factor.
Side effects, yep a whole bunch of them, for both drugs actually.
And drug #2 is a genetically modified herpes virus (really!) and while the STI part has been removed they still want you to start using a condom for the time you're in the trial - not a fan there.
So I'm leaning toward surgery to have the current three tumors (yep, they are confident that the 3rd lump is cancer) and the one drug which they might even be able to in GP...................
OK, just off the phone with the Edmonton people. You know, both with the cancer 10 years ago and now I have to say that while most medical people I've dealt with in my life have been good, the cancer people are a cut above the rest. They must screen these people better perhaps?
Anyway, we're going to go with the 1 drug, I can get it done in Grande Prairie which is only 75 minutes away, we'll leave the tumors in for the time being and look at them after 4 cycles of treatment and decide if we remove them then.
I feel good about this.
Not 70% effective but I didn't have a 100% chance of getting the 2nd drug anyway...................
And there we have it! I should be starting in a few weeks with luck and as far as I know my old chemo tech is still working in GP as of two years ago so it will be like a reunion!
Thanks so much for helping me with the mental side of this experience everyone!!!!!!!!
Cheers,
Garry
OK, here is what I think is possible.
1) There is a standard immunotherapy treatment effective 50% of the time.
2) There is a clinical study I can go in which adds a 2nd drug that takes it to 70% effective.
However, there is only a 50% chance that I would be getting the 2nd drug as this is a blind study and the patients are assigned randomly to get the study so I don't know if I'm actually getting the 2nd drug.
Plus there is a whole bunch of pretesting each time you go in for treatment which is 2 weeks for the first 2 months and then every 3 weeks for the next 4 months. Blood work, CT scans etc. That takes two days as you have to have the test one day and the treatment the next. I live 6 hours away so it would be 3 or 4 days of time. I really don't want that sort of disruption on my life and my parenting of my son. not that dying isn't a disruption but you know what I mean. And who's lying that the expense of all that travelling, hotels etc. would be a factor.
Side effects, yep a whole bunch of them, for both drugs actually.
And drug #2 is a genetically modified herpes virus (really!) and while the STI part has been removed they still want you to start using a condom for the time you're in the trial - not a fan there.
So I'm leaning toward surgery to have the current three tumors (yep, they are confident that the 3rd lump is cancer) and the one drug which they might even be able to in GP...................
OK, just off the phone with the Edmonton people. You know, both with the cancer 10 years ago and now I have to say that while most medical people I've dealt with in my life have been good, the cancer people are a cut above the rest. They must screen these people better perhaps?
Anyway, we're going to go with the 1 drug, I can get it done in Grande Prairie which is only 75 minutes away, we'll leave the tumors in for the time being and look at them after 4 cycles of treatment and decide if we remove them then.
I feel good about this.
Not 70% effective but I didn't have a 100% chance of getting the 2nd drug anyway...................
And there we have it! I should be starting in a few weeks with luck and as far as I know my old chemo tech is still working in GP as of two years ago so it will be like a reunion!
Thanks so much for helping me with the mental side of this experience everyone!!!!!!!!
Cheers,
Garry
