Hail Mary Attempt

I am finally feeling a bit more like myself this morning. I am not ready to run a marathon yet… ok, never, but at least I am out of bed and somewhat clear in my head. My poor scalp feels sunburned and over sensitive from the radiation. I started losing my hair on the very last day of the radiation. Every morning I get up to brush my hair, chunks and chunks of hair felt out. I still have hair left, but won’t be for long. I am actually looking forward to being bald. I am curious what my head looks like… like a baby’s head, smooth and shiny. lol!

I declined further chemo from my oncologist. He offered me another gene inhibitor to try as a last attempt. I was on a gene inhibitor when I was first diagnose over a year ago. The drug did miracles for me initially so much so that I though cancer went into remission… but then it only took 3 months for my body to render the drug ineffective and they had to take me off it. This other drug is made by a different company, it targets the same gene mutation. It has been around longer for 4 or 5 years. It was not the drug of my oncologist’s first choice because it has huge upside and huge downside. The upside is of course it could seriously interrupts the cancer. People that respond well could stay on the drug for years and years. The downside is it could have some serious and horrible side effects including internal bleeding and organ failures that lead to death. There are no studies on patients that failed one gene inhibitor and got on another one to see if it’s effective. I know the drug works differently in the system through a different process, so I am hoping it’s just different enough that my body responds to it. Who knows, it could be another miracle! It’s my hail mary attempt one lsat time.

My insurance company denied it at first based on the fact that I failed a similar preferred drug already, but my doctor fought back and got me the medicine. It arrived in the mail this morning!! Doesn’t it look serious? Bottle within a bottle. They told me I need to wash my hands after handling the drug. If others handle the drug for me, they should wear a latex glove!! I can’t wait to swallow this thing! lol!!

It needs to be taken at exactly the same time every day on an empty stomach. I will start tomorrow! Wish me luck!