Dr. Sipahi for Chemo Today

11/19/2008

• Gina saw Dr. Sipahi and his lovely "girls" (staff) that do the wonderful things they do each day to make Gina and everyone else feel special.
• Dr. Sipahi spoke with Dr, Olopade and they thought Gina should be put on a new chemotherapy drug called NAVELBINE - Gina will get this instead of the Xeloda pills she was taking at 3,000 mg a day, one week on and one week off.
• Now, Gina will take the Navelbine by IV once a week and it will last around 15 minutes and then another 15 minutes or so for saline to flush out her veins.
• You can click on the links to right in the Information Station to learn more about Navelbine and how it works in the body - The action of the drug is the Inhibition of Mitosis at cell's metaphase (or, I believe, stopping the cancer cells from growing and/or dividing at cellular level).
• We will continue with the Herceptin for as long as Gina's heart can tolerate it as it seems to work very well
• For those of you who did not know Gina is diagnosed at a stage five of cancer so we want to knock this down to a lower number than to a ZERO!
• As far as the "spot" in the heart that was suspected to be either a tumor or a clot, the doctors say it is the tumor in the lung that grew that is showing up in the scan and Dr. Sipahi is calling it new disease so another reason why they are trying the Navelbine now.
• No PET scan yet - we are gonna wait until the Navelbine attacks those cancer cells and then do the PET scan (more later)

Thanks for the loving support and all your goodwill!

Notes on Dr. Sipahi Visit

11/17/2008

• Trip to UCMC for follow-up with Dr. Olopade
• Dr. Olopade was told about heart echo (test) showing a "spot" that might be a clot or tumor and she said she would review the scans with Doctors and get back to us
• We told Dr. Olopade about the lung tumor was shown to have grown by last chest scan and putting pressure on Gina's trachea and encroaching her heart
• Dr. Olopade said she wants to change the chemotherapy and stop the Xeloda since it is not effective in Gina's treatment but keep on taking the Herceptin (IV) form of chemo - that is good since Gina's hands are numb and SO sore from the Xeloda
• Gina did no take the Xeloda today (11/18) since Dr. Olopade is changing to another chemotherapy drug that Gina will take daily (unknown at this time for sure what it is)
• After talking to Dr. Olopade, she thinks we need to have a Pet scan for Gina (shows whole body and any tumor activity in the body from head to knees), waiting for scan to be scheduled
• Gina having Herceptin tomorrow (11/19) and will hopefully know what new chemo is

Keep up the prayers and support - we need your faith and love to get some good news!

Updates on Gina's Progress

11/16/08

• On 10/29/08 Gina had Chemo again w/ Dr. Sipahi and "the girls"
• Gina noticed a small, black spot in between her big toe and the next on left foot so Dr. Sipahi suggested a biopsy to check for possible skin cancer
• A procedure was done on friday, november 7th and the spot was removed and sent to lab while gina had two stitches in between toes
• test results came back as negative for skin cancer (YEAH!) - better 2 be safe i guess
• gina having chest pains for awhile now and chest feels "heavy" so had echo done on heart - results suggest small "spot" on heart, could be clot or tumor so Dr. Sipahi said get to Chicago as soon as possible
• Dr. Olopade notified but she was out of country in Nigeria so appointment set for monday, november 17th at 10:30 am (keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer to the man upstairs that it is nothing bad, maybe just a bad scan). if clot, doctor said gina might need a stint put in.

More tomorrow after we talk to Dr. Olopade in chicago. (sorry 4 the late postings)