The Next Mountain to Climb

We had a short appointment to discuss the scans Kristi had done last Friday. The scans, which were chest only (not full body), showed mild growth of most tumors. Remember that Leiomyosarcoma is not generally responsive to chemo therapy. So, these results are not surprising. Her doctor would like to do two more treatments and scan again.  There are some people with LMS who are able to achieve stability or little growth for some time on some chemos. We think that if the growth is similar after the next scans, the doctor may try a different type of chemo.  There are a few positives to note: After about a week of pretty bad chemo side effects, they begin to subside. Kristi has been able to work all this week. In addition, the continued tweaking of the new pain management regime is helping ease her back pain.  While all of this is probably the greatest challenge we’ve ever faced, we continue to realize that we are extremely blessed in so many ways including having good insuran...

We realized that waiting until after the next scan may be too long to post again. We are thankful that so many of you want to know how things are going. So, we’ll tell you. 😁 Since our last post we did learn from a skin biopsy that Kristi has a metastatic leiomyosarcoma on her scalp; a second lump under her skin on her back came back inconclusive.  We think it would be remarkable if that spot was benign; it may have not been a good sample. But who knows?  Kristi had her second round of chemo last Thursday. We think Dr. Ganjoo was just being very optimistic when she told us about the treatments … the chemo is rough. The two chemo drugs Kristi gets are two of the oldest drugs used (dacarbazine and gemcitabine for those interested). Just about the only side effect she hasn’t experienced is hair loss, which is likely yet to come. The chemo makes her feel like she has a bad flu and nausea. The drug that helps keep her white cell count up makes her spine hurt. And of course sh...