Living with Brain Cancer

April 2008

• So Hard right now - by M.G - (Mon, Apr 21 2008)
  I recently found out my dad has brain cancer last year around this time, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. In the later part of last year he was diagnosed with lung cancer Now this. [more..]
• mrs.blankenship - by breanna - (Fri, Apr 18 2008)
  hello everyone my name is breanna and iam 17 years old.about a week ago i and my family found aout that my grandma had brain canser [cancer] [more..]
• We are there… - by Crystal - (Wed, Apr 16 2008)
  My husband and I have been married for five years. He has been the healthiest person I know. On Halloween day of 2007 my husband feel out at work with a siezure. [more..]
• It can get worse - by Judith - (Tue, Apr 01 2008)
  I wrote a short dialogue about my husband who has stage IV brain cancer and now we are further along this very difficult road. After treatment with surgical removal of the tumor ( deemed successful) and the radiation and Temodor treatment we had 5 weeks off and things went pretty good for about 4 of those weeks. Then we went and had a MRI and a new small tumor was found the size of a jellybean. After talking to all the Doctors the decision was made to wait 4 weeks and see what was happening. About 3 weeks into the wait everything fell apart and we had to get him to the hospital. Our Doctor helped us get him into the emergency room so he could be admitted. At this time my husband lost everything on his left side, got disoriented, had vision problems and couldn’t function at all by himself. The tumor had grown to the size of a large walnut and was pressing on vital areas of his brain. The Doctors got him on Decadron once again and after a week in the hospital got everything under control and his Oncologist got approved to do Irinotecan and Avastin Chemotherapy. The first infusions of the combined drugs were done in the hospital and it seemed to go OK. We went home and he was doing quite well for a time and then we went for his second infusion of the chemo and when we got home things started to go downhill. His platelet count started dwindling and over the period of 5 weeks got down to 41 which is scary territory. At this time we are stalled as other than Decadron there is nothing out there to treat this platelet issue except to wait until it gets worse and then they can do a platelet infusion or if it turns out to be ITP they can give a IV called IVTP which is an immune system supplement (?) to try and turn this around. Meanwhile my husband is experiencing confusion quite a bit, serious weakness and has terrible mouthsores. I write this not to argue what his treatment is but to give someone a bit of information on what the treatment can do to a persons body. The tumor has shrunk by over half the last time we checked but now we don’t know where we are there as the chemo has been stopped because of the side effects. If we can turn this around we will change the chemo from Irinotecan + Avastin to just Irinotecan for a cycle or two and make some adjustments. The treatment is harsh but has some significant results so we will move on and cope with the problems. If anyone has been on this protocol I would appreciate any commentary as it is so helpful to have any insights when you are in this situation. [more..]