Dana Faber Visit Update
Today Steve and I went to Dana Faber to meet with a research doctor in Gastrointestinal Cancers to talk about possible clinical trials. We did our research and talked with Steve’s Oncologist in Warwick beforehand and we were pretty sure there wasn’t anything that Steve qualified for so we weren’t expecting much. But figured a ride there wouldn’t hurt.
And it didn’t hurt, nor did it help.
We were correct. There is nothing right now for Steve’s specific cancer and mutation of his cancer. However, the doctor did offer to test Steve’s original biopsy sample to see if it has a specific mutation that it wasn’t tested for back in June 2014. While the doctor doesn’t think Steve’s cancer has this mutation according to other markers, he wants to be sure. If it has the mutation there could possibly be other trials that he could qualify for when they open up. We aren’t betting on this, but he’s going to at least let him do the testing, if he can get a piece of the original biopsy, which is another unknown possibility.
If he can get his hands on that sample, he would also like to test it for some other genetic markers which again, could possibly open up another trial possibility down the line.
Now that he’s been to Dana Faber, they will keep him in the system and if something comes up that he would quality for, they will notify us.
We don’t look at this trip as a waste of time. We enjoyed our time together driving up there and back and we actually talked a lot and laughed even more! The hospital was very nice and everyone we saw was very helpful. They have a pretty efficient system that seems to work well to make the time pass by.
The doctor we met with was younger than us! But he was very knowledgeable, nice, had a great bedside manor and he thinks that Steve’s oncologist has done a great job and has a good plan in place. That was very reassuring to hear! Not that we’ve ever doubted him, but at least he didn’t tell us had we done something differently, the end result would be different. Had we gone to a doctor at Dana Faber from the beginning, they would have done the same thing. It was easier for us to see a doctor here in Warwick so we could keep our lives as “normal” as possible for the girls. That was always our number one concern and will still be through out the year.
The plan stands with Steve having 2 more treatments on his current chemo and then he’ll have another CT Scan in 4 weeks. If the cancer continues to spread in his lungs (or anywhere else for that matter), then he’ll begin his 12 cycles (24 weeks) of Oxaliplatin and will have the bag again for 2 days afterwards until the end of the summer.
2016 will continue to be a year that we will try and celebrate when we can, spend as much time as a family doing the things we love to do together and spending time with our friends and family … we’ll take one day at a time and see where things go. But we’ll continue to make memories that will last the girls a lifetime.