Erik's started his treatment. He was ok'd to participate in a clinical trial in conjunction with chemotherapy - we met with the trial team yesterday. The treatment will go in cycles of 21 days, with a maximum of 6 cycles. Each cycle will be a dose of the trial medicine (ribociclib) at home every day for 7 days, take a three day break, go into the clinic (outpatient) for a dose of chemo on day 10, then let it do its work for 11 days back at home. The trial medicine will temporarily slow or stop the growth of the tumors, and apparently the chemo drug they're using (doxorubicin) works best when cells are dividing rapidly, so the thought is that as soon as he stops taking the trial, all the tumors will begin to grow again rapidly, then they'll hit them with the chemo when they're most susceptible. The ultimate goal is to stop the growth and shrink the tumors as much as possible, then after the final cycle, continue to take the ribociclib indefinitely as maintenance.
He's still feeling mostly ok, but is starting to notice some changes. His temperature fluctuates a lot, which is normal for cancer patients his doctors said, but it has tipped over the high end of what they consider normal, so he's talking to his doctor about that. He's able to walk around at home without the crutches, but the incisions still hurt quite a bit and parts of his thigh and leg are still numb. He's doing physical therapy and taking nerve calming medicine, so hopefully that'll help. His cough is a lot worse, and his voice is getting a little raspy - likely from the tumors irritating his trachea, and from all the coughing. We're hopeful the treatments will help with that, too.
Chemo itself starts next Thursday, after another round of testing and another biopsy, so I'll report back then. As always, thank you so much for being there - it really helps!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I'M STILL FIGURING OUT HOW TO REMOVE THE LINKS BELOW, BUT IN THE MEANTIME
PLEASE DO NOT SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA - THANK YOU!
