Hip! Hip! Hooray!!!

I FINALLY got the call I had been waiting for yesterday! UCSF received a new portion of my tumor from Kaiser that was big enough to test, and it passed the RB test so I was approved to do the first study that I was REALLY hoping to get into :) My mom and I went up to SF today and picked up the pills and I took my first dose about 2 hours ago.

So here's the specifics: I'll be taking pills, at home, of the trial drug once a day for 3 weeks, then I get 1 week off to recover, so it is a 28 day cycle. I'll have an MRI, EKG and meeting with a doc after every 2 cycles. If the tumor either shows no growth or shrinks, I will continue on the treatment for 12 cycles, which can be extended to 24 cycles if I choose and it is still working. If the tumor grows, then the medication obviously isn't working and I will move on to the other trial which I am already approved for.

Right now I can kinda feel my stomach gurgling a little. I have some anti-nausea medicine I can take if that becomes an issue, but the nurse told me to try starting without it. This is a very similar feeling to what I felt when I used to take my Temodar pills, so I'm hoping that my side effects are similar as well. I tolerated Temodar really well and took it for several years. All I really had was some nausea, which the anti-nausea pills totally contained, and fatigue, but that didn't even set in for several months. The literature on this new drug says that nausea and fatigue are also it's most likely side effects. I am supposed to keep a journal of when I take it, how much I take and any side effects. Cross your fingers that I'm not yacking in a couple hours :) I'll let you know tomorrow if anything significant happens tonight.

I'm really relieved to finally be doing SOMETHING! My last treatment of Avastin was toward the end of November and I have had no other cancer-fighting treatments since! Basically, my tumor has been allowed to grow, unchecked, for nearly 8 weeks and, luckily, it has behaved very well :) It seems to have grown very little and has not ticked off my motor strip any further so I have had no new symptoms and no further paralysis or weakness. I first talked to the doctor at UCSF about getting enrolled in this trial on December 14th, so it took 5 weeks to git'erdone, but now I'm finally on a medication! It has been really frustrating, but I've been trying my best to not stress about it. My obsession, crocheting, has been a sanity saver! When I've got both hands busy and I'm thinking about the pattern, it just takes all my cares away :) Though my mom gets kinda annoyed when I ignore her because I'm counting stitches and will lose my place if I reply. Between that, reading, doctors appointments and visiting friends, my days tend to keep me much more entertained than I expected when I first moved to Fiddletown :)

Ok, it's late and my sleeping pill is finally starting to kick in. Wish me luck that I make it through the rest of the night... I'm going to go get a trash can to keep beside my bed... just in case!