Wellness

[rizzos2000]

Hi everyone. Hope your days leading up to Christmas are enjoyable for you. I will be taking 5 drugs. They are calling it folfirinox for short. 5 flourouracil, Leucovorin, Irinotecan, Oxaliplatin. I will go once a week, one drug is attached to the port for two additional days and then we start over every 14 days. Hugs to all. Patty

[Lyn08]

On 12/22/2014 rizzos2000 said: Hi everyone. Hope your days leading up to Christmas are enjoyable for you. I will be taking 5 drugs. They are calling it folfirinox for short. 5 flourouracil, Leucovorin, Irinotecan, Oxaliplatin. I will go once a week, one drug is attached to the port for two additional days and then we start over every 14 days. Hugs to all. Patty

Oxaliplatin is one of the chemo drugs that my cousin will be taking. My mother took 5 flourouracil many years ago when she was taking chemo for breast cancer. She also took a couple other drugs (methotrexate was one of them), and I gave her a "cocktail" of drugs at home afterwards. She tolerated the chemo really well.

I hope the drugs will work well for you, and you won't have side-effects. I'll say and extra prayer for you when you start your chemo.

[HerRoyaLioness]

lyn - I'm so glad you got to be with your cousin, I know he must feel comfortable with you and that is important to have someone we can talk to when going through something like this. I wish the very best for him in the future and that they can keep this under control. I am not familiar with the drugs he is going to be taking, but I seethe with anger over these insurance companies that refuse payment on the treatments we need. Hope you are doing ok.

Rizzo - sounds like you are planning things out well. Please take as long as a leave as they will let you at work - you will need and appreciate it. I had to work through what I could - there were days I could barely get myself out of bed much less go to work, but other days I went and suffered through it. Not fun and I wish I didn't have to and I wouldn't if I wasn't single. It just isn't worth it. I'm not familiar with your drugs and how you are getting them, but I am hoping it won't be too bad for you. Let us know how it goes for you.

Celtic - hope you are healing ok and that your prognosis is good.

Take care everyone!

Lannie

[F1wild]

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season so far. My back is completely out so posting bits and pieces only.

Cheers!

[F1wild]

Interesting info from Mayo Clinic:

One of our most exciting areas of research is virotherapy, an incredibly promising field that uses the destructive power of viruses to kill cancer and other diseases while leaving a patient's healthy cells intact. Because our supporters are so important to this groundbreaking research, I asked one of our leading virotherapy researchers, Dr. Stephen J. Russell, to share some recent successes as well as plans for the coming year.

I hope you'll read the interview below for a unique perspective on why your support right now is so critical:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN J. RUSSELL, M.D., PH.D.

Q: What makes your work on viruses so exciting?

Most cancers still do not have a cure, but we had an incredible success recently with a treatment based on the measles virus.. We adapted the virus to destroy only cancer cells and engineered it so we could track it as it spread within the body. We then used it as a treatment to study patients with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer.

One of these patients gave us permission to tell her story. She is Stacy Erholtz. Last summer, the mother of three was losing her 10-year battle with cancer. It had spread throughout her body, and she had run out of options. We gave her a single injection of the virus at the highest dose level, which defeated her cancer — something never before achieved. It is really exciting to think that with more research and development, the power of viruses might one day become a viable cure for cancer.

Q: What are one or two research developments over the last year that you are most proud of?

We successfully launched two very exciting clinical trials, one to test the measles virus therapy more extensively in myeloma patients and a second designed to benefit ovarian cancer patients with strong anti-measles immunity.

But nothing can match the email message I received from Stacy, the first patient to respond so well to the measles virus therapy, on her 51st birthday, telling me, "I do not ever remember feeling this well." That was 17 months after the infusion of the virus as treatment.

Q: What key areas will researchers in virotherapy be working on in 2015?

In the laboratory, we will be creating new and better cancer fighting viruses and developing new treatment protocols to make our existing viruses more effective.

In the clinic, we will continue testing viruses against a broad spectrum of cancers, including ovarian, colorectal, liver, head and neck cancers, lymphoma, and acute myeloid leukemia.

[AkaGoldie]

F1, thanks for posting that info, it's very interesting. I always perk up my ears when they mention ovarian cancer. Right now, the treatment for OC is the same as it was twenty years ago! And the survival rates are dismal. Again thanks for posting this! Goldie

[Sunshine]

Hello ladies, Today was my 6th and last chemo session. YAY. I was scared of chemo too, but it really wasn't that bad. I went to chemo and saw my Oncologist every 21 days. I was treated for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in my spleen. If you can get your husband, friend or significant other to sit with you during chemo, the time will fly by. My husband did that for me and I'm so thankful. Good luck to all of you getting ready to start chemo and I hope and pray that things go well for the rest of us. Happy Holidays. Sue

[ukseahawk]

Congrats on the last chemo session Sunshine - isn't it a great feeling to be done?

Patty - Enjoy Christmas and know that these women on this board are all very helpful. They helped me with all my questions. I agree with Sunshine - if you can have someone go with you, the time will fly. And definitely drink as much liquid as you can stand. Those anti-nausea pills worked wonders for me, don't hesitate to take them.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakkuh, and Happy New Year to all! And good health to all!!!

UK

[rizzos2000]

Sunshine. Congrats, that is wonderful news, Yeah!

[JackieHN]

F1 great article. Now the only way to get over your back pain is ice and anti inflammatories. That's it. I have a tens unit in the house that works like a charm. Takes care of the muscle spasms. Maybe you should consider one. I got mine on HSN believe it or not. It's by Tony Little. We even bought one for our hair dresser. He loves it.

Patty, everyone reacts to chemo differently. It may not be terribly bad. My girlfriend sailed through hers. Me, I didn't know about Claritan when I got the neulasta. So I had the aches and pains. Her hair is growing back already. Mine took forever. Go figure.

Sue, cyber drink on your completion of chemo. Happy Days.

Blessings to all,

Jxx