Update-April 2009

Here's the latest update from Pops...

"It’s been a long day… but I am thankful Margaret joined me at the Dr’s today to get the outcome of my blood work and the CT Scan. It was a bad day/good day/bad day for our visit. The good news first… I will not be taking chemotherapy for my cancer nodules. The bad news is several of the nodules have doubled in size over the past 4 months. The largest nodules now are 1.7cm in size. The largest is close to my wind pipe and the Dr wants to start on a program of Oral Chemotherapy Drug medicine.

The Chemotherapy drug is called “Tarceva” and is one of the newest and best drugs for treating my type of cancer since 2004. This drug has several side effects which I should be able to get through without many problems. This treatment with Oral Tarceva is much better for me than regular Chemotherapy treatment which beats your body up so badly. There are only 2 food items that I cannot eat/drink and those are grapefruit and green tea! Strange combination but I can live with that. I start taking Tarceva in 2 weeks after my Dr does some additional research on my body makeup to make sure my body and drug will work well together.

Taking Tarceva will hopefully slow the growth of the cancer. With the growth at 100% over the past 4 months is not the direction my Dr was looking for. At this point we can only slow the progress of this cancer. I will willingly take experimental drugs and treatment if any become available. Time will tell.

As they say… thank God for Insurance. My pharmacist told me the monthly cost for Tarceva was $4500!! Yes, that’s correct. Wow!! I don’t know how folks do this without insurance.

Margaret and I and our beautiful family want to thank you all for your wonderful support over the past several months. Your prayers have been instrumental for me keeping me strong through all of this. We send our love to you all.

Gene and Margaret"