The Bold and the Beautiful

I just wanted to write a little about Jackie.  She is the one I wrote early on about, who is from Oklahoma and came to Korea with stage IV pancreatic cancer.  She has a rich Southern drawl and is an incredibly devoted Christian woman.  When she meets you, she has a heartful of love for you and a smile that doesn't wane.  She gave me a white blood cell stimulation shot, I put on her pain patch.  She worked on mom's skepticism and everyone's religious persuasion. 

While in Korea, we always wanted to know how she was doing.  She's been through the wringer, emotionally and physically (I don't think ever, spiritually).  After Cyberknife, various chemos, stem cells and gene therapy... her tumor has shrunk from the size of a small mango to the size of a nickel.  I keep up on her (and a couple of other's) updates through CaringBridge every day. 

There is nothing more inspirational than watching someone with a huge and mostly impossible battle before them... and see them do, fight and persevere every step of the way.  What is happening with her, seems to be doing some good.  She'd be quite the miracle if she actually beats her cancer (especially being that it's pancreatic).  I know that Dr. Moon cares a great deal about her and I know that he is doing everything he can pull out of his brain to get her into remission.

Speaking of inspirational... we got to Skype with mom last night.  She looks GREAT.  Really good.  Still struggling with the pain issue, so she's going back to the pain clinic next week... but she just looked like normal mom.  She'll be going in for a chemo treatment at home of Avastin and Cisplatin.  I'm so glad her oncologist is going to continue the plan for her here.  As far as Tykerb, insurance will not pay for it so it seems it will need to be purchased from Canada.  Mom's scan should be in a few months.

Keeping you posted from coast-to-coast.  Signing off (for now)....

Coming home soon

YES!  Being excited is okay!  This is GREAT stuff, here!  Based on her tumor markers, she has improved a lot. The very bad part is that she just can't get that pain under control.  I'm happy she will be coming home soon.  Hopefully, nerve blockers or SOMETHING can help her. 

She says that if she can figure out how to continue her treatments at home, she should be able to keep the cancer from metastasizing and if the IGRT was successful, the tumors in her lung should shrink like crazy. It takes a long time for adenocarcinoma to react to radiation so it could be months before we can tell if it was successful.


She is flying home next Saturday, February 13th. 

Uwe and Cristal, I think I accidentally deleted your message.  Thank you for your well wishes.  You can read Jackie's posts at:  www.caringbridge.org/visit/jackiewilks. 

Until next time...
 
 
 
 
 
 

Day Eight

This is the front of Mario Tower, the building where Goodgene is located.  It is up on the 11th floor.

Today is Tuesday, so Mom got her protein drip (however, this one took two hours).  Then, she received her "gene vaccine" (gene drug specifically for lung cancer) and then an additional "CK" shot, which means "Cytokine" (gene complex which simulates anticancer immunity).  Those shots are, as mom says, butt shots and they hurt like the dickens.  She was finished today by noon.  Because a patient was already having his blood harvested, I needed to wait until 1:30pm to have mine done.   For lunch, mom and I went down to a Chinese restaurant in the lobby.  It was very unusual... Chinese food, Korean style.  They spoke no English so somehow, through drawing pictures in the air and my limited amount of Korean, we were able to get a fork for mom.

My blood harvesting took 2 hours and 15 minutes.  They said my blood was "slow" and the centrifuge kept clicking off.  After awhile of vein checks and trying to warm my very cold hand, they said that my blood was freezing and added "anti-freeze".  Yes, I freaked out a little when they said they added "anti-freeze" but alas, it was only an anti-coagulant.

Dr. Moon did stick his head into mom's room and mentioned that after the clinic visit tomorrow, she will need to see Dr. Cho at the Korean Cancer Center.  He wants to use a low toxicity chemo and is hoping the drug will come tomorrow.  I suppose we'll find out more once we speak to Dr. Cho.

Otherwise, mom has been eating well (peaches, apples, oranges, bananas, salad) and keeping strong.  The rib pain, however, is growing more pronounced and mom's medications are still in customs.  Mom had to get presciptions for them emailed to her this morning, then she forwarded them to FedEx along with her passport number and explanations for the medications.  This is a word to the wise... if you have to ship any meds from the US, include the prescriptions, passport # and explanations.  Another patient had his vitamins confiscated and told that sending them here was illegal.  So, we have our fingers crossed.

I do wish I could give more treatment information but we simply don't know any more information.  They hook her up, you try to ask questions and they try to explain but it's just a little and it's on the other side of a language barrier.  At this point it goes like this:  Monday, Wednesday and Friday is stem cells and protein.  Tuesdays and Thursdays is gene and/or CK shot(s) and protein.  Saturdays are unknown as Dr. Moon will call out whatever he deems necessary for the patient on that day.  And that's it, folks.

It's hard for someone like mom (and me) to not know exactly what's going on.  Mom needs to know the "who", "what", "why" and "where".  But, that's not what you get.  Heck, we just show up at the shuttle every morning, go to the clinic and hope for the best. 

The people that come here bring with them a lot of hope.  But those who come, come when they have been given very little hope at home.   Is this a cure, though?  Is there such thing as a cure for Parkinsons and cancer with Dr. Moon?  Before you come, do your homework.  Research.  Be wise, be smart and yes, have faith.  Don't just read blogs (including mine) and think you know all there is to know.  That's not smart.  You need to know that not everyone who has come here has survived, let alone been cured.  You will need to understand that you will be given a percentage of "cure" that Dr. Moon will give you when you meet him.

Mom is here because this is her only option right now.  She cannot keep going without any kind of cancer-fighting treatment.  If this works, I will shout it from every rooftop.  If this works, she will be his biggest advocate.  In the meantime, I will hold her hand and pray that this will, at the very least, help her.

Sure, I have faith.  I happen to have to have a lot of it.  I just prefer it not to be blind.  As for hope... there are rivers of it here.

This is a proverb that is quite appropriate:

As long as we have hope, we have direction, the energy to move, and the map to move by. We have a hundred alternatives, a thousand paths and an infinity of dreams. Hopeful, we are halfway to where we want to go; hopeless, we are lost forever.