‘dem Bones, ‘dem Bones

It has been so long I almost forgot my password! It has been quite an eventful spring/summer for Gwen and family.

As you may remember, Gwen had some spots in her brain that her last medication was doing well to control. Well, all good things come to an end. There was some back and forth about radiating the spots, but alas, the tumor board here in NC did not concur on this course of action. Her doctor in Boston was adamant that radiation be done, therefore they took a trip to Boston May 9th and 10th for radiation. The plan was to stay on the current medication as it was doing a decent job on her bones (the spots looked to be healing).

In this time, Gwen has been getting regularly scanned in Raleigh. Her team of doctors has worked well with Gwen and Justin to accommodate their summer travel plans, which include a large chunk of time in NY as always, so the most recent round of scans was moved to Boston, and as long as they were heading East to Boston, might as well throw in a trip to the Cape!

They left NY around July 17 and returned around July 21 (I could ask Gwen the exact dates as she is in the next room right now, but apparently I am too lazy). The latest scans revealed that the medication was no longer working on her bones (In fact, today she mentioned her bones hurting, like the kind of pain you feel if you press on a bruise).

Once again, we are thankful that science is staying one step ahead of this dumb cancer, and Gwen is able to get in on a clinical trial that is in phase 1 (her previous trials have all been in phase 2) and has shown some good results so far. The downside here is that her NY vacay plans will be cut short as she will have to go back to Boston for several days next week to go through all the hoops one needs to go through to start in a clinical trial. Then, it is our understanding, she will need to go to Boston once a week for 3 weeks, then every other week for a couple of months, and then once a month for who knows how long. One of these trips is scheduled for the first day of school, so that’s fun.

In the meantime, Gwen, Justin, and Callie are making the most of the summer and hanging out with us in NY.

Continued prayers are always welcomed! I will try to be better with the updates (but NOT after every single trip to Boston as Justin jokingly suggested I do because there’s just no way I will get my act together to do that).

And She Just Ran…

Hello again all! I have been a bit negligent in my updates, but as they say, no news is good news, right? If you are on facebook, then you have likely been keeping up with the goings on with Gwen. But if not… then here you go:

We have hit the road running with another school year after a full and amazing summer. Gwen spent time training for the annual Lung Cancer Initiative of NC LUNGe Forward 5K here in Raleigh. Her goals (other than, you know, fundraising to help the fight against lung cancer) were to A) run the whole time and B) to finish the 5K in under 35 minutes.

I am happy to report on Gwen’s behalf that she completed both goals AND that her fundraising team (#GwenStrong) was one of the top 10 fundraising teams! Thank you to all of you who supported her team from near and far. GwenStrong had a good showing in the medals as well with Gwen being the first female survivor finisher and Justin, Mom, and Dad all medaling in their respective age groups.

Just a couple of short weeks later, Gwen participated in another 5K! This one was a fundraiser at her school. Due to some favorable conditions, she was able to shatter her personal best time by about 4 minutes!

This week was a trip-to-Boston-week. She had scans in Raleigh on Monday and a check up with Dr. Shaw in Boston on Thursday. When we last got a scan report, we were told that she spot(s) in the brain scan were only noticeable to the drs. because they knew where to look (that’s how tiny they had become). This week, the scans were reported as being CLEAR. Nothing in the brain (I don’t think I will ever not feel tempted to make a joke here – sorry Gwen), and nothing in the lungs. No more lung cloud, no more pin prick tumors in the brain. Simply remarkable. The Boston skies were as beautiful as her scans.

Gwen feels very blessed. Thank you for praying for her, asking about her, thinking about her.

Frequent Flyer

Happy spring! I hope you all had a joyous Easter! We are just finishing up our Spring Break and got to have a lovely visit with our sister Kristen. Gwen’s friends swung by from NY, too. Gwen, Justin, and Callie went to Florida to visit Justin’s parents (who work at Disney) for the first part of the break. Things have been busy around here… mostly for Gwen.

When last we updated, she was headed to Boston to see about getting into a drug trial for a different medication. The earliest she could see the doctor was the Tuesday of that week, I believe. They ran some blood tests and her white blood cell count was too low. She was told that the low count could have been a result of her Xalkori still in the bloodstream. Prayers went out for the count to go up. (A little boy a church added Gwen to his family prayers that day).

The prayers worked, because at the time of the next blood draw her counts were just high enough to qualify her for the trial. She began that Friday (one week after stopping Xalkori). The new drug is called Lorlatinib.

She needs to travel to Boston for checkups and to pick up her refills, basically, every three weeks.

At the end of March, she let her Raleigh Dr. know that she was experiencing some dizziness. Tests and scans were ordered right away (this was about a week ahead of when her next scan was scheduled anyway). It was determined that things were looking good and that the dizziness was some sort of lingering motion sickness from the frequent flying. You see, after that first visit to Boston, Gwen’s subsequent trips have just been day trips, like she’s some sort of fancy business lady or something. (You should ask her about the millionaire she sat next to sometime). Anyway, she is still having some trouble with this and hence was told NO spinning rides at Disney! None!

At her latest check up about a week or so ago, her scans were very, very good. Dr. G (here in Raleigh) said that she could not be more pleased with the results. The spots in Gwen’s brain are diminishing! The cloud in her lung is stable.

So this brings us to last week. Gwen and Justin drove back from Florida in time for Gwen to fly straight to Boston on Good Friday to see Dr. Shaw. The folks up north were pleased with what they saw, too.

Boston!

Gwen did not run in the marathon. But here’s the finish line!

Gwen is also participating in a second trial. They are using her blood to see if they can develop a blood test to “diagnose,” if you will, ROS-1. So when she goes up north, they take a lot of blood from her. Hopefully they can learn some stuff from this trial!

Happy Easter!

Off to Bean Town

Thanks to the many folks who have asked about Gwen (and the family). She is doing fine! As has been the case through much of this two year process, she feels great.

Many have wanted to know what the next step is (and when). Gwen called and left a message with Dr. Shaw’s office last Friday. Their office was closed Monday due to President’s Day which means she didn’t speak to someone ’til Tuesday. She has an appointment for the 28th. The person she spoke to told her that this would be to merely talk about the drug trial. Gwen was not satisfied by this notion as she really wanted some action to take place if she was going to fly up to Boston!

She finally heard back from Dr. Shaw this afternoon. The plan is to go through consultation Tuesday and some screenings maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. If she “passes,” the earliest she can begin the new drug would be next Friday afternoon as her body needs to be rid of her current meds for one weeks before beginning the new one.

The doctors running the trial will be notified that she’s coming, so hopefully things will be good to go and she’ll be able to return back home next Friday evening.

Many thanks to the organizations and individuals who have offered assistance with travel expenses. The offers and prayers are much appreciated and very touching!

Brain News

It’s been a busy week in Gwen Land. She had a spinal tap yesterday and is having some residual lower back pain and headache from that today. I went with her to Duke today so Justin could work (according to the local news, we teachers are absent too much…).

So here’s what we did while we were waiting:

Grading papers like champs…

Anyway, the first appointment at Duke this morning was literally with a Brain Surgeon. We later met with another specialist for a consultation. Being that we were at Duke, we also met with their respective interns. Between all four of those intelligent people, we heard the same thing over and over, “We don’t know what’s in your brain.” I will fight the urge to make jokes here.

Since I was not present at the appointment on Tuesday, I learned some things today. Such as: in August, Gwen’s brain scan had some spots and no one mentioned anything. Apparently, if any of us got our brains scanned right now, we could have spots show up, too. This week, what alarmed the doctors was that there were about a dozen spots and some were in the same exact location as before AND had shown growth. However, if these were indeed cancerous, the expectation would be that they would react to the contrast in the MRI, and they didn’t.

It was the opinion of all four of the people we saw today that Gwen should wait 4-6 weeks, get scanned again, and then reevaluate. Treatment options for “If these are metastases…”  were discussed (biopsy/radiation, etc). Also, the brain fluids from the spinal tap will be tested for everything under the sun to try to explain the spots. They said that the spots could turn out to be nothing…

Meanwhile, in between appointments today, Gwen received a call from Dr. G’s nurse (Duke-Raleigh) who had been in contact with Dr. Shaw in Boston. (Recall, she is a ROS-1 specialist). Dr. Shaw wants to see Gwen in Boston NEXT WEEK. (See previous note about teachers and “multiple absences” and you will understand that this gave Gwen a bit of a momentary panic attack). 

Gwen was able to talk to Dr. G. tonight on the phone to discuss the Duke appointments as well as the idea of going to Boston. Dr. G. and Dr. Shaw DO NOT want to wait 4-6 weeks. According to Dr. Shaw, spots in the brain that do not react to contrast is something that she sees frequently with the ROS-1 patients (this is actually a question that Gwen tried to ask the doctors at Duke – could this be a different kind of reaction because of her type of cancer. They didn’t think so, but it seems that Dr. Shaw does, and she’s the ROS-1 expert). Dr. G. REALLY wants to get Gwen up there ASAP – she doesn’t want to take chances with Gwen’s brain. Apparently, Dr. Shaw does think that these spots are concerning.

There is a drug that Dr. Shaw can get Gwen hooked up with. Gwen really doesn’t want to leave Xalkori due to the fact that her body hasn’t resisted it yet (it is still working for her lungs), but this other drug has been shown to break through the blood-brain barrier. This course of treatment would also likely mean multiple trips to Boston.

We left the appointments today thinking we had one game plan, and then within a matter of hours, it was thrown out the window!

Gwen knows that, obviously, her health is the most important thing, but we teachers are a warped breed. Sometimes our first thought isn’t “I have to take care of me,” it’s “Oh, how am I going to be absent that much and make all those sub plans and grade all those papers and how will the kids ever be ready for the State Exam??” It is irrational, exhausting, and very, very stressful.

If you are the praying type, please pray for her to find peace with her chosen course of treatment, which ever that may be, and to find peace with putting her health first! And of course pray for her health and the wisdom of her doctors. 🙂

Thanks, everyone!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Well, our updates skipped from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day, so I hope you all had a great holiday season and the New Year is off to a nice start. Gwen, Justin, and Callie took a lovely Christmas cruise with Justin’s side of the family and returned in time to spend Christmas day with the rest of us back here in reality. A few of us got to spend the holiday with a lovely stomach flu, so that was fun. Other than that, the holiday break was quite nice!

Gwen had her latest appointment with Dr. Garst today. The official report is that her lung “cloud” shows no significant change from November, however when you look at the scans, visually it appears improved! Her bone scan results were deemed “Stable.”

The results of her brain MRI showed “spots of unknown significance.” My response was, “WHAT??”

So, apparently there are some spots showing up in her brain… something on top and something in the back. When you look at the scan, these spots appear like cancer spots would appear on a scan, HOWEVER, these spots are not acting like cancer in that they did not absorb the contrast that Gwen took for the MRI like cancer spots normally do. Of course, like much of this journey, the doctor has never seen anything like it.

Thankfully, things are going to kick into high gear to try to figure out what is going on and hence what the next steps will be moving forward. On Thursday, Gwen will have a spinal tap to test her brain fluids. Friday, she has two appointments set up with two different “brain doctors” at Big Duke in Durham. Her scans will also be sent up to Dr. Shaw in Boston for further consultation. I’m not sure how much information we will get this week, but we will keep you posted!

Please keep Gwen in your prayers. Please also add, if you will, our cousin who had surgery last week to remove a tumor in her lung. Boo lung cancer!