We have so much to celebrate

We have so much to celebrate

Friday, April 17, 2009

A Week of Treatments

A week ago today, Eric received his first IV treatment in Cleveland.  He also started taking the Sutent pills that will continue for 28 days.  Last weekend, he had some side effects from the IV and is now beginning to experience some side effects from the Sutent.  He was able to go to work part of the week.  Cleveland Clinic has asked him to take his blood pressure often to monitor it due to the fact that it has been periodically elevated.  This is a side effect of both drugs and one of the main concerns relative to the trial.  Today he started taking a low dose of blood pressure medication.

Relatively speaking, it has been a good week.  Initially understanding the effects of the treatments for Eric is unknown so he is very aware of of everything going on in his body right now.  So again, we wait for the next CT Scan to know if the treatments are making a difference.  I guess we'd be dreaming to think that there wouldn't be any side effects.  Reading accounts of others on these drugs, Eric is doing well.  We know that it could be a lot worse.  It will be interesting to see the side effects this next week and then to see how the IV treatment a week from today affects him.  The hope in all of this is that there are excellent reports that these two drugs have attacked the cancer cells successfully for others.  If the next CT scan shows evidence that the treatments are working, that may make the side effects a little easier to accept.  

What a beautiful day it has been.  We wish everyone a great weekend... enjoy the sunshine :o)

Eric and Gwen

2 comments:

Barb and Mike said...

Eric,
Praying for the best. An interesting fact .. my mom (Barb) had Wet Macular Degeneration and had to have shots in her eye. The drug of choice was Avastin. It worked ... it stopped the bleeding after 3 shots of Avastin and 2 of Lucentis .. because the Avastin had not been FDA approved for eye use yet. So the Lucentis may have helped, but the Avastin shrunk and stopped the bleeding. We are praying that you have the same results.
Love ya,
Barb and Mike

Jodi said...

Still keeping you Eric, and your family in our thoughts and prayers.
Stay strong,
Jodi and Rabes