Jan 12-Chemo

Hello to all. Mark had his chemo today as usual. He got good news last Friday about the cancer marker. It was down just a bit to 15. We were glad it wasn't rising at the same rate. Stabilization felt good. It actually fell, but not as much as we'd hoped either. Dr. Farmer wanted to add back the Avastin which is the agent that goes along with the chemo to help stangulate the blood supply to the cancer cells and kill them off. It worked really well for Mark before the surgery last May. We had been holding it in anticipation of Mark's ileostomy reversal surgery. You cannot have surgery while on Avastin and must stop it 6 weeks before any surgical procedure as you are at risk to not heal well due to the lack of blood supply. Anyway, it was decided that we'd postpone the surgery until we had a better grip on Mark's cancer marker and felt it to be more stable. Today was his first day back on the Avastin. He did really well through the treatment.

The other discussion we now have to think about is a desensitization process to the leukovorin. The pharmacist at the hospital did some research for Dr. Farmer and found a few cases of this being done with leukovorin. We have the information on the process and will consider whether or not to try it. It would basically have Mark taking very tiny doses of oral leukovorin every 4 hours until he got up to pretty massive doses and then stay on the oral dose daily to keep his body desensitized to the IV leukovorin that goes along with the chemo every 2 weeks. The risk, of course, is that he has an allergic reaction to the pills and it be something severe. He would be medicated with antihistamine and steroids and would carry an epi pen. The overall feeling is that Mark is allergic to an additive in the leukovorin IV and not the leukovorin itself. They have changed manufacturers and if the theory is right, it should work. The problem is, the only way to test the theory is by giving him the pills and praying for no reaction. It is a little scary to think about.

We will first see how Mark does with his current medications before deciding on the above. We will pray about it and see what happens. We haven't been led down the wrong path yet, so we will trust the Lord on this one.

Thanks to all of you who read this and keep Mark in your daily prayers. We appreciate it so much. We have felt so blessed to have wonderful family and friends supporting us. God bless!!!!