& Update on Husband

[Guest guest]

All,

I just learned of 's passing as I joined the group after being

away for many months. My computer crashed last Sep/Oct, I then

learned I was a victim of identiy theft, lost another family member,

etc. So I recently got the computer working again and decided to

check out how the group was doing. I was very saddenned to learn

about ; I had to step away for a couple of days.

and I had a couple of exchanges about radiation therapy, which

my husband did not qualify for. He has been continuing the chemo

therapy and was expecting to go into a new clinical trial with

Avastin and Erbitux last month. However, after all tests, his

bilirubin was too high and he did not qualify. He is now on what

the nurses call " full fury " , i.e. CTP-11, Oxaliplatin, and 5FU. The

doctor realized he had not been on all 3 at once and that the CPT-11

had not been proven to fail. The tumors have been progressing

according to the CT scans, the CEA is up and this past week we

discovered that his blood sugar was dangerously high. It was up in

the 600's. We spent two nights at the emergency room, he was

finally admitted and now he is on insulin. It was a very exhausting

week.

The high blood sugar is said to have been triggered by the Decadron -

- the only thing in two years that has worked for the nausea and

fatique following chemo. It's the only thing that got us through

the holidays. Due to the hospital visit, he did not get his second

chemo this year. The plan was to get another scan after the second

chemo (after a month of full fury) and then try for the clinical

trial again.

I am losing hope. I see that things are gradually getting worse. I

have sought the help of a psychologist and I just try to get through

each week the best way that I can.

My thoughts are with all of you. By the way, I discoved the many

links of helpful information posted by . Just one of the many

ways that all of his good work will continue to help us.