This is rather late in coming; we have been gone so much of the time and had so many new medical appointments to meet that when we are home, I usually lack the mental energy to condense all of this enough for these pages.
Our trip to LA went very smoothly, flights were good, and we liked Virgin America Airline. TSA was even good, no body scanners this time.
We went to Ventura on the first night in order to be in Dr. Duke Bahn's office first thing Monday morning for a Color Doppler Ultrasound and expert disease staging. Dr. Bahn is the the doctor on the west coast to which the Prostate Oncologists send their patients for more accurate staging. He was very thorough, and followed the test with a consultation in which he asked many questions and explained what we were seeing on the ultra sound pictures. When told Leland had recently been through Provenge, he completely dismissed that by saying he has not seen a single patient helped by that treatment. For certain Leland was not. He also told us there was evidence his tumor had been larger and extending into the bladder neck, but looked as though it has been shrinking, due to the chemo.
We then drove to LA, and found our motel-a less than satisfactory place- then to the clinic for chemo and a consultation with Dr. Eshaghian. I began feeling nauseous while there, and by the time we got back to the motel, I was sick. Spent the night sleeping between bouts of vomiting. It must have been food poisoning. I still did not feel very well Tuesday morning, but could not bear to send Leland off by himself for the next round of testing-a Pet 18 bone scan and MRI. I knew there would be another bunch of paperwork to fill out for which he really appreciates my help, and I could hardly stand the thought of being in that depressing motel room all morning alone.
The testing went fine, and we received the reports last weekend. His disease is advanced, which we already know, but now we know the extent. The cancer has spread throughout his skeletal system, however we do not know when it reached his skull, because no one has monitored that before.
On Tuesday of this week, Leland had an Echo Cardiogram done, then yesterday went met with the Cardiologist. This was done because these treatments are hard on the heart, and many patients die of heart disease caused by the treatment. They will be monitoring him very closely, with these appointments being repeated every 12 weeks or so-something else which has not been done before. The Dr. here was very friendly, very informative, looked over Leland's drug list quite closely, and remarked that he is on some very state of the art medications.
The trip to Yakima on Monday went well, and they administered the chemo per Dr. Leibowitz's orders. It only takes us 1.5 hours to get there, which is better than the 4 it took to Seattle. We had hoped to be able to do this at the clinic in The Dalles, but they were not willing to work with Dr. Leibowitz apparently, as they did not bother to return the phone calls from LA.
Leland gets his blood drawn and tested each week before the chemo is administered, and his other medications are adjusted once per month in LA, or sooner if we call with symptoms. He is getting welts on his abdomen from one of his daily shots, and we talked to Dr. E about it and sent him pictures, but he feels the benefit is bigger than the minor discomfort caused.
He is feeling reasonable, still low energy, but spending a lot less time on the couch. The treatments are having effect, and his PSA is down to 13.8 from 107. Best of all, the Circulating Tumor Cells are down to 2-from 95. We were hoping for under 5 the first time before Provenge, when they were 17. They then shot up to 95 the second time post Provenge.. So 2 is an excellent number and Dr. E was very pleased. Said he would take a low CTC score over a low PSA any day. He also remarked that Leland's treatment in Seattle was good as far as it went, but was only "half assed." I asked what he meant by that and he said the Anti-angiogenic Cocktail is extemely important, as it prevents new blood supply from forming for new lesions.
We are grateful for good insurance which pays most of the medical bills and most of the drug costs. We are also grateful for good medical care which allows a decent quality of life even in the midst of a ravaging disease. Once again, we are also grateful for your prayers in our behalf, and for the love that comes our way. And a big thank you to Del and Chuck for rescuing us in The Dalles this week, we feel loved and cared for.
