I am going to back up several days and make sure that everyone has the same information.
Last week, Alicia began to experience severe pain in her throat making it difficult to swallow. She also was nauseous and unable to keep medicines down to help with the throat pain. She went into the doctors office to get fluids during the day, 3 days last week, then would get sick overnight again and need IV fluids again the next day. Saturday morning she was weak and had gone an extended period without eating or drinking. Chris took her to the hospital and she was admitted around noon. Even after 24 hours she remained deydrated and was becoming under nourished. She will stay in the hospital a bit longer and get some nutrients via her medi-port and stay on the pain meds, nausea meds, and fluids.
The reason it is so important that she gain some strength and be able to tolerate eating is that we believe she may start some treatments very soon.
On Friday, we did hear from M.D. Anderson. The condensed version is that some of her doctors are going to agree to disagree. M.D. Anderson re-evaluated all of the tissue samples and the pathologists there believe the the Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma is INCORRECT. Their diagnosis is Adenocarcinoma of the Head and Neck. In some ways this is significant and in others it makes no difference. It makes no difference, in that there will still not be a cure for Alicia. The stage her cancer is at and the rarity of cancer presenting in this way makes this uncurable. It does make a difference in what they can and will do to slow it down.
We do not have the exact plan in our hands yet. What we do know, is that Alicia is going to have the team at M.D. Anderson guide her treatments and care. We also know that they do not believe that she is a candidate for surgery or radiation. They will be using some type of chemotherapy. The team there was still working to determine if they could find a cellular weakness in one of the tissue samples that would give them a better idea of exactly which chemo to use. Alicia will not be part of a clinical trial, she will be using proven chemotherapy drugs to slow the growth of her tumors.
Her doctor in Jefferson City believes that it is essential that treatment begin as soon as possible. Both he and the doctors at M.D. Anderson believe that the cancer is in a period of rapid growth. Obviously the faster they can administer the first dose of chemo, the better chance they have of the cancer not getting ahead of them.
So, now, we wait. As soon as M.D. Anderson determines which chemotherapy they are going with, the oncologist here will being adminstering that drug.
As soon as we know more about how long chemo will be, which drug they are using, and what to expect over the coming months, I will post an update.
Last week, Alicia began to experience severe pain in her throat making it difficult to swallow. She also was nauseous and unable to keep medicines down to help with the throat pain. She went into the doctors office to get fluids during the day, 3 days last week, then would get sick overnight again and need IV fluids again the next day. Saturday morning she was weak and had gone an extended period without eating or drinking. Chris took her to the hospital and she was admitted around noon. Even after 24 hours she remained deydrated and was becoming under nourished. She will stay in the hospital a bit longer and get some nutrients via her medi-port and stay on the pain meds, nausea meds, and fluids.
The reason it is so important that she gain some strength and be able to tolerate eating is that we believe she may start some treatments very soon.
On Friday, we did hear from M.D. Anderson. The condensed version is that some of her doctors are going to agree to disagree. M.D. Anderson re-evaluated all of the tissue samples and the pathologists there believe the the Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma is INCORRECT. Their diagnosis is Adenocarcinoma of the Head and Neck. In some ways this is significant and in others it makes no difference. It makes no difference, in that there will still not be a cure for Alicia. The stage her cancer is at and the rarity of cancer presenting in this way makes this uncurable. It does make a difference in what they can and will do to slow it down.
We do not have the exact plan in our hands yet. What we do know, is that Alicia is going to have the team at M.D. Anderson guide her treatments and care. We also know that they do not believe that she is a candidate for surgery or radiation. They will be using some type of chemotherapy. The team there was still working to determine if they could find a cellular weakness in one of the tissue samples that would give them a better idea of exactly which chemo to use. Alicia will not be part of a clinical trial, she will be using proven chemotherapy drugs to slow the growth of her tumors.
Her doctor in Jefferson City believes that it is essential that treatment begin as soon as possible. Both he and the doctors at M.D. Anderson believe that the cancer is in a period of rapid growth. Obviously the faster they can administer the first dose of chemo, the better chance they have of the cancer not getting ahead of them.
So, now, we wait. As soon as M.D. Anderson determines which chemotherapy they are going with, the oncologist here will being adminstering that drug.
As soon as we know more about how long chemo will be, which drug they are using, and what to expect over the coming months, I will post an update.