Hello Prayer Warriors.

I have to start off by apologizing for my lake of updates. A lot has been happening on this side of the internet. To give the full update I have to go back to December 2015.

After Christmas Mom had her routine CT lung and abdomen scans. Everything came back looking great. The tumors are still shrinking, and there are no signs of tumors growing or spreading. Praise God!!!  Additionally, Mom only had a mild reaction to the CT oral & IV contrast. Praise God again!! Mom still was dealing with the regular side-effects of extreme fatigue, joint pain, traveling rash, dry skin, and mental exhaustion as she entered the start of a new year!

Come the end of February, her blood work showed an elevated bilirubin and liver function tests which the doctor had been noticing it slowly increasing, and wanted to retest in 2 weeks, which did return to normal. Mom also developed a painful rash on her eyelids and around her eyes. It seemed the same as the other rashes, caused by Tarceva 150mg, but worse. Eyes were red and irritated. Eyelids were swollen, blistered and peeling. While the rash continued to get worse, Mom went to attend to her mother in Southern California who was placed on Hospice after her health took a turn for the worse. We were hypothesizing that the rash could be stress induced and spoke to her Doctor about options of treating the rash. He stated that the options would be to go to a lower dose of Tarceva, and if that didn’t work, then switch to a different medication. Since the Tarceva has yielded great results, switching to a new medication is a bit worrisome. After seeing the doctor when she returned home, he felt that the rash was for sure a side-effect from the medication, and took Mom off the Tarceva, on a trial basis until the rash resolved.

During this time, Mom made her way back down to Southern California to make funeral arrangements after her mother passed away. She was off the medication for a week and the rash was slowly starting to clear up. She started the medication back up at the 150mg daily dose before returning home, and had a scan in Seattle on March 17. Needless to say we were all extremely concerned that the absence of the medication could result in a growth of tumors or spread of cancer. Thank God once again!!! There were no signs of growth and the images show that the tumors continued to shrink in comparison to the CT scan in December. And she had less of a reaction to the IV contrast than previously.

Well… the eyelid rash came back; peeling, redness, and painful blisters. At doctor’s orders, mom discontinued the Tarceva for about a week until the rash went away, and then reduced her dose to 100mg daily. The doctor stated that the next option is changing to a different Targeted Therapy medication. Not really the outcome we were hoping for. During all these changes, and many prayers for symptoms to clear up by many of you, my dad did some internet searching and found a research trial article of 3 patients who were on Tarceva 25-50mg, an ultra-low dose, who achieved a balance of disease control with prolonged side effect tolerability. After sharing the article with her doctor, and reporting her eye symptoms were not worsening, the doctor agreed to let mom take another break from the medication at an even lower dose -Tarceva 100mg every other day, again, on a trial basis. If she were to switch medications, the doctor explains there isn’t an option to go back on the Tarceva, so mom wants to exhaust all options on this medication before completely changing. She refers to her medications as her “life-lines” and wants to reserve as many of her life-lines as possible, before leaping to different medication. Praising God for His continued leading and the willingness of the doctor to hold off on changing to a new medication!!!

So currently, as of April 20, (and celebrating her 8th month on treatment) Mom’s eye symptoms have completely healed, even after 9 days of restarting Tarceva 100mg every other day. The doctor is pleased with these results, and recommends gradually increasing the dose to Tarceva 150mg every other day, monitor side effects, and report any intolerable side effects. She has another follow up with lab tests on Monday, April 25…we will keep you posted!

We ask you to join us as we’re specifically pray; that the medication will continue to work at this lower dose as well as it has in the past, that we continue seeing progress with the tumors shrinking, the numerous side effects will be tolerated, and that Mom’s future liver function tests stay in the normal range.

Mom continues to stay positive and up-beat about all of the roller-coaster emotions of her journey. She continues to look to your support, family, and God for daily encouragement. Mom has been holding onto God’s Word and found more songs she continues to listen to, and feels that were written for her at times. She wants to share these with you, in hopes you will be encouraged as well. She Says: “These musical messages, which I feel are written especially for me… To carry me through the ups and downs of treatment while keeping focused and leaning on Christ.  To challenge me to continue to tell others of the works of the Lord, and to encourage me to keep going on my new life journey because You have been my God…Through all of it!”
Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support. I know how much my parents appreciate you all. I promise to keep you more up-to-date than I have in the past.