Prayer Request - UPDATE!!!

nkimber said:

Thank you!!!!
Thank you all so very much for your prayers... Didn't sleep too well last night but I am becoming more and more at peace as the morning goes on. Thank you all for your immense faith!

For those who asked, 1:30 EST is my appointment time... who knows when the scan will actually happen!!!

Thanks again and you are all in my prayers as well.

Nicole

Agatha said:

Prayers
You are in my prayers!
All the best,
Agatha

terryscarlett said:

Nicole
May God be with you and prayers are going up for you and the family, possitive thoughts and results are in order..

nkimber said:

Scan's over... Now for the results on Wednesday!!!
Thank you all so much for your prayers. I got through the scan, and spent the entire 60 minutes in the tube praying... falling asleep here and there. I guess that means I was at peace! The radiologist who would be looking at the results and writing up the report came in to talk to me before the scan. He was great and spent about 30 minutes with me answering questions about the last scan, and even making me feel better about some of the unknown. I never had that experience with my oncologist so it was a welcome surprise, and nice to finally understand a bit more about what has been going on. I know that sounds awful but my oncologist is another story altogether!

Now I'm off to pray for some great results on Wednesday afternoon... I will share with you all as soon as I hear!

Thanks again and my prayers are with all of you.

Nicole

Hondo said:

Hi Nicole

Just to let you know still Praying and Waiting

Pam M said:

I Know, Hondo
It's like "Is it results day yet?".

nkimber said:

Well, I spent the day yesterday going to visit a new oncologist at a different hospital, then running around trying to get the print-outs of my results to drop back off with him... all while trying my best not to open the envelope so that I could wait for my other doctor to deliver the lews late yesterday afternoon! It was a very long day to say the least.

So, here's the news:

1. The tumor in my throat shrank about 20%!!! This is great, especially considering the cancer is so slow-moving that it's really tough to target with chemo. The report said "intervally decreased showing good response". The uptake was a bit less too.

2. The older, smaller tumors had very little uptake and shrank "intervally showing excellent response".

3. I have new, small tumors... boooo. So, needless to say the doctors are very confused. The chemo is working, but still allowing new stuff to show-up???? So strange. The tumors are very small (biggest is about 1cm, maybe less), and just under my skin. No... you can't see them like little lumps on my body! You still have to feel for them, but they're easily detectable.

The decision from the doctors is to stop the chemo I'm on right now (cisplatin, adriamiacin, cyclophosphamede), and move on to a clinical trial. I was presented with two, by the two different hospitals. One is phase I, and the other Phase II. I am going with Phase II and the drug is called Dasatinib. It is currently used for leukemia patients, so the trial isn't to approve the drug, but to approve the drug for use in salivary gland cancers. It's kind of cool... I'll be taking it orally, two times a day.

As for how I'm feeling about all of this, I'm really quite scared at the moment. It is very tough to be in unknown territory for so many doctors, but I need to see it as being a pioneer! I am very comfortable with my new oncologist, and he even called me on his way home from work last night to make sure I was comfortable wiht the plan and review the results that I received earlier that afternoon. In the meantime, my ENT is going to do some digging and look into chemo sensitivity testing (where they send away a piece of your tumor, grow it in a dish, and see if they can figure out how to kill it), and also test it for estrogen receptors. Thanks to Elizabeth I mentioned that her tumor of the same tpe grew during her pregnancies, so they thought it might be a good idea to test that too. They will be throwing in some other tests for good measure. So, hopefully I get some promising news in the next few days about all of his digging. I'm also hoping that the chemo sensitivity testing is at least partially covered by my insurance, and not too expensive. I heard some pretty big numbers depending on who you ask, but I think it is really where things are headed as far as improving cancer treatment and research.

Thank you again for all of your prayers... It was not exactly the perfect news that I prayed and hoped for, but it's a start. I am trying my best not to be scared, and to trust in God that I will live a long, amazing, and healthy life... that all of us will.

I will keep you all updated as the trial gets kicked-off... probably starting a couple weeks from now. In the meantime, while I'm free from chemo-induced side-effects, I'm embarking on a 7-day raw food cleanse! It will be tough, so I might need to have some soup to get me through it... Maybe it will be a 90% raw food cleanse I'll let you know how it goes... feel free to share any fun recipes you might have!

Lots of prayers going out to all of you each and every day.

Nicole

nkimber said:

Well, I spent the day yesterday going to visit a new oncologist at a different hospital, then running around trying to get the print-outs of my results to drop back off with him... all while trying my best not to open the envelope so that I could wait for my other doctor to deliver the lews late yesterday afternoon! It was a very long day to say the least.

So, here's the news:

1. The tumor in my throat shrank about 20%!!! This is great, especially considering the cancer is so slow-moving that it's really tough to target with chemo. The report said "intervally decreased showing good response". The uptake was a bit less too.

2. The older, smaller tumors had very little uptake and shrank "intervally showing excellent response".

3. I have new, small tumors... boooo. So, needless to say the doctors are very confused. The chemo is working, but still allowing new stuff to show-up???? So strange. The tumors are very small (biggest is about 1cm, maybe less), and just under my skin. No... you can't see them like little lumps on my body! You still have to feel for them, but they're easily detectable.

The decision from the doctors is to stop the chemo I'm on right now (cisplatin, adriamiacin, cyclophosphamede), and move on to a clinical trial. I was presented with two, by the two different hospitals. One is phase I, and the other Phase II. I am going with Phase II and the drug is called Dasatinib. It is currently used for leukemia patients, so the trial isn't to approve the drug, but to approve the drug for use in salivary gland cancers. It's kind of cool... I'll be taking it orally, two times a day.

As for how I'm feeling about all of this, I'm really quite scared at the moment. It is very tough to be in unknown territory for so many doctors, but I need to see it as being a pioneer! I am very comfortable with my new oncologist, and he even called me on his way home from work last night to make sure I was comfortable wiht the plan and review the results that I received earlier that afternoon. In the meantime, my ENT is going to do some digging and look into chemo sensitivity testing (where they send away a piece of your tumor, grow it in a dish, and see if they can figure out how to kill it), and also test it for estrogen receptors. Thanks to Elizabeth I mentioned that her tumor of the same tpe grew during her pregnancies, so they thought it might be a good idea to test that too. They will be throwing in some other tests for good measure. So, hopefully I get some promising news in the next few days about all of his digging. I'm also hoping that the chemo sensitivity testing is at least partially covered by my insurance, and not too expensive. I heard some pretty big numbers depending on who you ask, but I think it is really where things are headed as far as improving cancer treatment and research.

Thank you again for all of your prayers... It was not exactly the perfect news that I prayed and hoped for, but it's a start. I am trying my best not to be scared, and to trust in God that I will live a long, amazing, and healthy life... that all of us will.

I will keep you all updated as the trial gets kicked-off... probably starting a couple weeks from now. In the meantime, while I'm free from chemo-induced side-effects, I'm embarking on a 7-day raw food cleanse! It will be tough, so I might need to have some soup to get me through it... Maybe it will be a 90% raw food cleanse I'll let you know how it goes... feel free to share any fun recipes you might have!

Lots of prayers going out to all of you each and every day.

Nicole

nkimber said:

Well, I spent the day yesterday going to visit a new oncologist at a different hospital, then running around trying to get the print-outs of my results to drop back off with him... all while trying my best not to open the envelope so that I could wait for my other doctor to deliver the lews late yesterday afternoon! It was a very long day to say the least.

So, here's the news:

1. The tumor in my throat shrank about 20%!!! This is great, especially considering the cancer is so slow-moving that it's really tough to target with chemo. The report said "intervally decreased showing good response". The uptake was a bit less too.

2. The older, smaller tumors had very little uptake and shrank "intervally showing excellent response".

3. I have new, small tumors... boooo. So, needless to say the doctors are very confused. The chemo is working, but still allowing new stuff to show-up???? So strange. The tumors are very small (biggest is about 1cm, maybe less), and just under my skin. No... you can't see them like little lumps on my body! You still have to feel for them, but they're easily detectable.

The decision from the doctors is to stop the chemo I'm on right now (cisplatin, adriamiacin, cyclophosphamede), and move on to a clinical trial. I was presented with two, by the two different hospitals. One is phase I, and the other Phase II. I am going with Phase II and the drug is called Dasatinib. It is currently used for leukemia patients, so the trial isn't to approve the drug, but to approve the drug for use in salivary gland cancers. It's kind of cool... I'll be taking it orally, two times a day.

As for how I'm feeling about all of this, I'm really quite scared at the moment. It is very tough to be in unknown territory for so many doctors, but I need to see it as being a pioneer! I am very comfortable with my new oncologist, and he even called me on his way home from work last night to make sure I was comfortable wiht the plan and review the results that I received earlier that afternoon. In the meantime, my ENT is going to do some digging and look into chemo sensitivity testing (where they send away a piece of your tumor, grow it in a dish, and see if they can figure out how to kill it), and also test it for estrogen receptors. Thanks to Elizabeth I mentioned that her tumor of the same tpe grew during her pregnancies, so they thought it might be a good idea to test that too. They will be throwing in some other tests for good measure. So, hopefully I get some promising news in the next few days about all of his digging. I'm also hoping that the chemo sensitivity testing is at least partially covered by my insurance, and not too expensive. I heard some pretty big numbers depending on who you ask, but I think it is really where things are headed as far as improving cancer treatment and research.

Thank you again for all of your prayers... It was not exactly the perfect news that I prayed and hoped for, but it's a start. I am trying my best not to be scared, and to trust in God that I will live a long, amazing, and healthy life... that all of us will.

I will keep you all updated as the trial gets kicked-off... probably starting a couple weeks from now. In the meantime, while I'm free from chemo-induced side-effects, I'm embarking on a 7-day raw food cleanse! It will be tough, so I might need to have some soup to get me through it... Maybe it will be a 90% raw food cleanse I'll let you know how it goes... feel free to share any fun recipes you might have!

Lots of prayers going out to all of you each and every day.

Nicole

nkimber said:

Well, I spent the day yesterday going to visit a new oncologist at a different hospital, then running around trying to get the print-outs of my results to drop back off with him... all while trying my best not to open the envelope so that I could wait for my other doctor to deliver the lews late yesterday afternoon! It was a very long day to say the least.

So, here's the news:

1. The tumor in my throat shrank about 20%!!! This is great, especially considering the cancer is so slow-moving that it's really tough to target with chemo. The report said "intervally decreased showing good response". The uptake was a bit less too.

2. The older, smaller tumors had very little uptake and shrank "intervally showing excellent response".

3. I have new, small tumors... boooo. So, needless to say the doctors are very confused. The chemo is working, but still allowing new stuff to show-up???? So strange. The tumors are very small (biggest is about 1cm, maybe less), and just under my skin. No... you can't see them like little lumps on my body! You still have to feel for them, but they're easily detectable.

The decision from the doctors is to stop the chemo I'm on right now (cisplatin, adriamiacin, cyclophosphamede), and move on to a clinical trial. I was presented with two, by the two different hospitals. One is phase I, and the other Phase II. I am going with Phase II and the drug is called Dasatinib. It is currently used for leukemia patients, so the trial isn't to approve the drug, but to approve the drug for use in salivary gland cancers. It's kind of cool... I'll be taking it orally, two times a day.

As for how I'm feeling about all of this, I'm really quite scared at the moment. It is very tough to be in unknown territory for so many doctors, but I need to see it as being a pioneer! I am very comfortable with my new oncologist, and he even called me on his way home from work last night to make sure I was comfortable wiht the plan and review the results that I received earlier that afternoon. In the meantime, my ENT is going to do some digging and look into chemo sensitivity testing (where they send away a piece of your tumor, grow it in a dish, and see if they can figure out how to kill it), and also test it for estrogen receptors. Thanks to Elizabeth I mentioned that her tumor of the same tpe grew during her pregnancies, so they thought it might be a good idea to test that too. They will be throwing in some other tests for good measure. So, hopefully I get some promising news in the next few days about all of his digging. I'm also hoping that the chemo sensitivity testing is at least partially covered by my insurance, and not too expensive. I heard some pretty big numbers depending on who you ask, but I think it is really where things are headed as far as improving cancer treatment and research.

Thank you again for all of your prayers... It was not exactly the perfect news that I prayed and hoped for, but it's a start. I am trying my best not to be scared, and to trust in God that I will live a long, amazing, and healthy life... that all of us will.

I will keep you all updated as the trial gets kicked-off... probably starting a couple weeks from now. In the meantime, while I'm free from chemo-induced side-effects, I'm embarking on a 7-day raw food cleanse! It will be tough, so I might need to have some soup to get me through it... Maybe it will be a 90% raw food cleanse I'll let you know how it goes... feel free to share any fun recipes you might have!

Lots of prayers going out to all of you each and every day.

Nicole