February 15, 2009 c

Lest I appear like this treatment I had last week was a walk in the park I wanted to add an excerpt from Ward's journal. I don't mean to be so lighthearted, but I love to post pictures and talk about my kids. Please know that the pictures that follow in the following blogs are fun and did happen, but they aren't what happened last week. Love Anne

February 12, 2009
Anne is doing as good as she could be doing right now. During the days she sleeps a lot and they have her on meds to keep her blood pressure up. At night about 5:30 pm she has her experimental drug Alt 801. About 1-3 hours later she gets cold and then the riggers start (Shakes). Each day the shakes last longer and become more violent. This 4th one lasted about 45 minutes. It is always good to get her over this part. During the day Anne feels well enough to have a good conversation with me. But after about 30 minutes she falls asleep and it is good that she does a lot of sleeping. I don't think she has a lot of choice in this due to the meds they keep her on. She has problems with intense itching and is very agitated especially this last day. This case study that she is a part of is for 2 weeks with a one week break between. Then she will wait 4 weeks and have scans to see if it is working and then if it is she can have 2 more weeks of the treatment. If it is not working then they will have to use radiation. Anne has two locations where the cancer is now one is in her right lung about the size of an apricot and the other is about the size of an apple above her heart. The area above her heart has already been radiated and the one in her right lung will be used to monitor the effectiveness of this treatment. This Case study is very new and Anne is one of 3 people who have been a part of it in Denver and a handful of people in the US. This drug has shown good results to lab mice and we are hoping for the same with humans. Anne is on the forefront of research and medicine . . . Tonight Anne has been given her last dose of the Alt drug and she needs to get through the night and tomorrow we hope that she will be able to hold her blood pressure up and go home. We both want to go home so bad. We miss our girls, our home, our bed and Anne is sick of cords strapping her down for a week and we are both sick of that blasted beeping noise (alarms). I must admit that this time at the hospital the beeping has been much less, all the monitors hooked to her.