Third Hospital Stay & CEA tumor marker score

Matt is in the hospital for his third and last hospital stay.  This is day 15th of the trail.  Matt has developed a rash on his face, back shoulders and chest.  They told us about a moisturizer that will help with it that we will need to get.  If the rash worsens they want Matt to call the RN in charge of the clinical trial.  Matt has also developed some nausea but not bad enough for him to take medication for it.  Matt has a touch of the diarrhea.  They are going to give him a prescription to help him with that. If any of these symptoms worsen he is to call the Nurse of the clinical trial.

Now for the trail Matt has to see Dr. LaConte once a month for a physcial and he will go to Johnson Creek monthly for labs.  Every other month they will have Matt have a CT Scan at Watertown Hospital.  As long as Matt is tolerating the medication and the medication is working he can stay on the trial.  If he is not feeling well and wants to get off the trail he can.  God willing the new drugs are shrinking the cancer that is inside o f
Matt.

The nurse came in and told us Matt's new CEA tumor marker score.  His last marker was done on 4/15/11 and the score was 56.2.  They did labs right before Matt started his clinical trial for a base line and it was 41.8!!! Yeah!!!!!! Hopefully it continues to go down!!!!

Thank you to everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers.  I pray to God that these new drugs work on Matt's cancer!

Second trip to Hospital for Clinical Trail

Matt and Gavin playing basketball while waiting for his next blood draw.

Matt, Casey and Gavin went wandering and checked out the UW Children's Hospital.

Gaving learned how to make Uncle Matt's bed go up and down,

Matt has done real good for the first week of his trail. Matt has been able to continue to work all week.  He felt nauseous just a few times for a very short period.  Otherwise Matt has been a little tired but he doesn't let that stop him! Today he started taking Lapatinib.  It is a very big pill for Matt to take.  He is not fond of large
pills.  He has to take  4 pills of Lapatinib once a day every day.  He will have to take MK-2206 every other day.  For both pills he has to fast two hour before and two hours after.  Matt has started a routine of eating supper then waiting two hours and taking his pills, watch a movie then go to bed a little while later.  They said all his labs came back good.

Today Matt's nephew, Gavin came to keep him company for a while at the hospital.  Matt got his Lapatinib at 8:58 this morning.  They have to take blood draws at 8:58,9:28, 10:58, 12:58, 2;58, 4:58 and 8:58pm.  Then he has the evening and night and they take the last blood draw at 8:58 Friday morning. Of coarse during the night they check on him and take his vital signs and make sure he is doing well with the Lapatinib.
Then Matt will do this for a week and then he has his last hospital stay on be August 17.  They want to check how he is doing with both drugs.  They will ask a lot of questions to see if anything change with Matt.  They will ask how is he eating, if anything has changed with his bowls, if he had any pain and anything else that might be different than usual.  They will keep him on the same regiment of taking his pills and doing all the blood draws with a few extra draws and they will do an EKG to make sure his heart is still working at the baseline EKG he took two weeks ago before he started the clinical trial.   If Matt continues to do good he can continue to take these drugs and hopefully they will shrink his cancer that is in his body.

Thank you for your continue prayers for Matthew.  He continues to be strong and smiling a lot!

Clincial Trail

Matt is doing really well.  He arrived at UW-Hospital at 8 in the morning.  They checked him in right away.  He had a team of doctors that asked a lot of questions.  At 10:30 he got his first dose of the MK-2206 medication.  He will take this medication at home on the 5th, 7th and 9th of August.  Then on August 11 he will go back to UW-Hospital and stay over night again.  This time they add on the second trail drug...Lapatinib.  On the 11th, 13th, and15th he will take both drugs.  On the 12th,14th and 16th of August he will only take the Lapatinib.  Then he is back at UW-Hospital on August 17.  At these hospital stays the make sure Matt is tolerating the drugs.  They also take blood draws 8 times while he is there on the first day. He stays over night and has more blood draws  before they will release him at about Noon.  He is back in the hospital on August 17th.  He will only take the Lapatinib on the 18th, 20th.  On 17th, 19th, 21st he will take both drugs.  He will continue this pattern as long as things are working for Matt.

So far Matt feels good since he took the drug.  He is not feeling nausea or tingling or itching. He has been eating well, walking around and catching up on his sleep.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers.

Clincial Trial starting tomorrrow!

Tomorrow Matt has to be at the UW Hospital at 8:00 in the morning.  They said he is going to start with the two new drugs.  They want to see how Matt's body reacts to the new medications.  They will be doing tests on him and they said they will let him go on Thursday at noon. During the first 4 weeks of this trail Matt will
have to go into the hospital again on the 11th and 17 of August.

I praise to our Lord that this trail will help shrink the tumors in Matt's  body and go away!! I will let you know how the trial is going.

Thank you for all your prayers!!

Getting ready for the Clincial Trail = MK2206

Matt has been working hard and then going home and working on his yard and patio.  Matt did time off to go see the Brewers play and to see the puppies.  Matt's Aunt Tereseee's golden retriever that is sister to Matt's family golden retriever had 9 puppies on Monday.  Matt and Casey also helped with the Marine picnic this past weekend.

Matt and Casey and Cousin Becky at the Marine Park Picnic

While keeping busy Matt has also been getting ready for his Clinical Trail = MK2206. Matt went to Johnson Creek Cancer center for labs.   Tomorrow at 7:00 in the morning he has a CT Scan of the pelvic region and chest.  He also has a Cusechopan after his CT-Scan.  Then starting August 3rd the first day of the trail Matt has to be at the hospital at 8 in the morning and stay in the hospital until 8 in the morning August 4th.  They want to make sure Matt doesn't have any reaction to the chemotherapy medications.  They also want to run tests for the trail.  Then he will go home and continue to take the chemo medication and will have to go back to the hospital on August 11 and do the test for the clinical trail again.  They want to see how the new medication is working.  Then after 24 hours in the hospital he goes home again to take the medication at home until August 17 when he will have to do the routine again at stay ing in the hospital.  Dr. LeConte said as long as the drug is working he can stay in the trail.  If Matt starts not to feel good and wants to pull out of the trail he can do that at any time.  This MK2206 is supposed to help shrink the tumors in Matt.  I pray that it helps.  This might help with the pain Matt is experiencing in his pelvic region.

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!  I pray that this clinical trail will help Matt.

Change of Plans

Matt got a call from Dr. LeConte office stating that they found a spot for Matt for the clincial trial.  If all goes well Matt would start his trial on August 3 in Madison. Monday July 25 he will have to go and get a lot of blood test and Ct scan... whatever they need
for the trial.

Matt says he is ready and wants to get this started!!!

Thank you for all your continued prayers for Matt!

Dr. Appointment

Matt saw Dr. Holen yesterday.  Matt has been experiencing pain in his pelvic region.  He has a swollen lymph node a little off to the side where he was experiencing pain before.  Dr. Holen said he could get radition on it but Matt is waiting for a clinical trail so he decided no radition.  Matt decided to wait and get stronger pain medication and see how that works so he can do the clinical trail when they call.

Dr. Holen's office realized that Matt's port has not been used for several months.  The nurse  tried to access it and it was not working properly.  Matt stayed and the put a medication down his port.   Matt had to wait for 45 minutes and she tried his port again and it was working well.

Matt is going to have a tumor marker test done in a few weeks. Until then he continues to work hard even in this "extreme" heat!!!  It was 100* yesterday in Watertown!!  Way to hot for Wisconsin!!!

Thank you to everyone for continued prayers for Matt!!