Hi Everyone, Treatment Update -- Around 12/27, Ange started developing pain in her back/hip/upper leg which progressively got worse up until about a week ago. Her doctors decided to do a series of scans on the area to determine the root cause – Long story short, cancer was detected on her spine and pelvis which they believe is the cause of the pain. We knew about the cancer in her hip, but the spine was an unfortunate discovery. Our first question was how this was missed from the multiple scans we have already gone through – The explanation given was that each type of scan (PET, X-Ray, Ultrasound, MRI) shows a different picture of any given area and we had not done a MRI of the back which ultimately detected the activity. There is good news – First, The team does not believe this is “new” cancer as Ange has had back pain since she was pregnant with Mason, so we are not treating this as a progression of the cancer. This is important because if this is new activity then it could possibly mean that the Xalkori treatment is not working which would cause us to alter the treatment. Next, there is no actual damage to the spine/pelvis/leg area. If the cancer is not caught early enough then this can cause compression/fractures and fortunately everything looks good from that perspective. Finally, Ange seems to be getting better. Some days are better than others, but the pain is definitely trending down and her mobility is good. Also, there are still no signs of the primary cancer symptoms (coughing and trouble breathing) so we still feel confident that the current treatment is working. Next steps – Xalkori is effective at treating ALK+ cancer everywhere below the neck, so there are no plans to switch treatment strategies. As mentioned above, the primary symptoms have disappeared so we are still optimistic that Xalkori is working and looking forward to the results of the January 26th scans. It’s important to remember that Ange has only been on Xalkori for a little over a month so we are hopeful that we have not seen the full benefits of the treatment yet. That being said, we want to be aggressive with her treatment and have made the decision to proceed with another round of targeted radiation to alleviate the pain and hopefully remove the cancer on the spine. We have an appointment with our radiation oncologist on 1/13/2015 to discuss our plan and will probably begin treatment the following week – Decisions on the length and specific target of the radiation will be made at that appointment. The goal is that the radiation will help with the pain and the combination of the treatments will work to remove the cancer. On the positive side, we had a fantastic holiday season and hope everyone else did as well! We spent some family time at Reynolds Plantation, and Ange and I got away to the mountains for a much needed spa retreat. We had an amazing Christmas with the family and Santa delivered Ava her coveted Easy Bake Oven and Mason an assortment of toys to keep him entertained. And the Varner/Tranum combo led the Dawgs to a bowl game victory – You’re welcome Dawg fans! We are heading down to Jupiter, FL next week to escape the cold weather and enjoy the country club life for a few days. I hope everyone stays warm and is enjoying a great start to the New Year! I look forward to sharing some positive updates when we get back! Love you all! #BuiltAngeTough Blake
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 03:03:14 +0000
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