Update from Jeff 11/9/17

We got some excellent news yesterday at MD Anderson based on my CT scan last week.   There has been basically no change in the last 3 scans, so they now consider me to be in clinical remission and can find no evidence of (active) cancer.   They believe the last small spot on my lung is the remnants of the cancer and is probably dead and basically now a scar.   There’s another small spot which has been there since 2013 and it is benign.     I will continue treatment at least through next February (as of right now), but they have changed my protocol to have an infusion every  3 weeks instead of every 2 weeks.    This will make continuing the treatment much more palatable.  Cancer can always come back but, as of now, the news is excellent.   Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. 

Jeff

Update from Jeff 9/19/17

My scan last week showed very little change in the tumor and no new tumors, which is good news.    Maybe a little shrinkage, but not statistically significant.  

Update from Jeff 7/24/17

I had a scan done last Monday which showed a very minor amount of shrinkage of my tumor.   This wasn’t that surprising since it was done sooner than my other scans (4 weeks vs 8 weeks).   Plus, I had missed on of my treatments.   However, no new tumors have been found which is good news, plus it has not grown.   My next scan will be in 8 weeks, so I’ll update you again then.   Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers. 

Jeff

Update from Jeff 6/6/17

Just finished my second CT scan after 8 treatments and the results looked very good.   I had another roughly 35% decrease in my tumor size and no new tumors were found.   The plan is to continue my treatments for the near future (next several months).   I’m not tolerating them as well lately, but there certainly better than some of the other alternatives.   Again, thanks for the support and prayers.

Update from Jeff 4/10/17

Had an abdominal/chest scan on Sunday and met with my doctor at MD Anderson today to get the results.    Of the two tumors, the smaller one has disappeared and the larger one has shrunk by 1/3.   No new metastases have been found.   This is very good news and I will continue the infusions every other week for the foreseeable future.   Again, thanks to everyone for their support and prayers.

March 12

 Things are getting pretty predictable now.   On the week of the infusions (on every other Monday), Jeff starts to feel bad around mid-day on Wednesday, really tired on Thursdays and starts to 'recover' on Friday, and feels pretty good again on Saturday.   We've learned to do certain things to help mitigate the symptoms, although they have varied a little between treatments.  Last week, the symptoms were less severe, although there was much more coughing this time.   This week will be for followup blood test and EKGs and we will go home on Thursday.   After that, we will just have visits to MDA on Mondays, for infusions one week and followup tests the next week.   After the 4th cycle (8 weeks) are complete, a scan will be done to see how Jeff is responding and we will go from there.   Probably won't be many more posts (unless something unusual happens) until results from the scan are received.   A big 'thanks' to everyone for their concern and prayers.

March 8

Jeff was discharged from CTRC Tuesday afternoon and admitted to the hospital (per protocol). Early Wednesday morning he had some 'chest pain/tightness in his chest', but he has a cough and it might be related to the cough or the large amount of fluids he is receiving. He had a breathing treatment because of the cough and shortness of breath and the cough is slightly better. He is somewhat anxious because of the shortness of breath though it seems to be improving with the breathing treatments and reassurance from the midlevel provider. The rash is starting on his back as expected so the other symptoms can't be far away.

Thanks for your interest, concern and prayers. All are appreciated.