A little bit of humour leading into the weekend. Lou had a week to herself in Cleanland (Queensland), relaxing and preparing for the next phase of treatment. She’s feeling tip-top so, why not a little laugh. Evie Pops loves a mashup. She has an amazing, un-deliberate ability to mash together not only words but multiple songs…
I didn’t know it was possible to be so proud of a five-year-olds achievement. Today Noah was presented, in front of his whole school, the Kindergarten Blue Award. Days like this make you feel like a million dollars. Noah, I honestly don’t care what profession you choose, what sport you play, what social or sexual preferences you…
So Louise is enroled in the Immunotherapy Trial, which she starts on September 5. This is an attempt to assist her immune system to find and destroy cancer cells. She is also simultaneously participating in the MoST trial, which is quite different and essentially starts out as a research study. MoST (Molecular Screening and Therapeutics) personalises…
So yesterday at our Immunotherapy kick-off meeting, Professor Kefford gave Lou a quality compliment. Not bad coming from someone who has been working with cancer and treating cancer patients with chemotherapy, radiation and Immunotherapy, from before Lou was born. “I’ve been doing this job for forty years and haven’t seen anyone that looks as good as you do for…
Even though my medical experience is shallow, from my observation, there is a massive divide between non-traditional and traditional medicine. Surely there could be major benefits, for patients, if there were collaboration and co-creation of treatments. I don’t know why this is? Other countries seem to be so much more integrated across the traditional to…
I thought I’d share a personal email I sent Lou at the beginning of this cancer journey. Umm yep, I send my wife emails that are non-work/admin related. Somehow my keyboard knows what to say when my mouth doesn’t. If it wasn’t for modern comm’s technology (SMS, email, social etc) I may well be classified…
Immunotherapy helps your immune system find and destroy cancer cells. I’ve read in detail and it gets pretty technical, my head was spinning. The best summary is that cancer cells have molecules on their surface that can be detected by the immune system (tumour antigens). The immunotherapy directs the immune system to attack tumour cells…
Yay, Lou was accepted into an Immunotherapy trial today. A tiny win in our cancer war. The Good The study might work. Fingers and toes crossed. Pray to your gods. If the study doesn’t work for us, the knowledge will help people with advanced cancer in the future. That’s a good thing. The Bad A…
We kicked off with a biopsy on Monday morning (13 August). Three samples were taken from Lou’s ninth rib. One was a standard sample, one for the Immunotherapy Trial and one for the MoST trial. On Tuesday Lou started Radiotherapy. This localised radiation was continued on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. She has one more…
Without anyone telling Noah that mummy was in a precarious situation, he knew something was up. Five-year-olds are way more clever than often credited. They might be doing simple sight-words and basic maths, but they know a hell of a lot. In a meditation class at school last Tuesday, Noah (a good Catholic boy like…
Lou’s Naturapath has recommended she go on the Keto Diet + Red Meat. See attachments: Louise’s Diet – Ketogenic Diet Nutritional Advice Oligo Scan We are also expecting an RGCC test to be conducted this week which will produce an individual profile of both chemotherapeutic drugs and natural substances (including diet) that can be used to achieve…
I am on a mission to find anyone that: Has been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer They were treated with chemotherapy The chemotherapy didn’t work (cancer turned up somewhere else i.e metastatic) They are now responding positively to another/different treatment option (Traditional and/or Non-Traditional medicine) I’m super keen to talk to you. Dom
Professor John Boyages I 7 August Based on Louise’s treatment summary you approved, there wasn’t any variation to your recommendation of treatment The only thing John was keen to do was a PET scan The PET scan didn’t seem to be a priority for Dr Morgia, Dr Forster or Dr Kay Xu This meeting with…
JAVELIN Medley: ANZCTR Website & Australian Cancer Trials Website Louise’s likely schedule after her five rounds of radiotherapy is Immunotherapy with a Parp Inhibitor: Immunotherapy – Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment which assists the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Immunotherapy can boost the immune system to work better against cancer or remove barriers to the immune…
It’s been seven days since Lou’s oncologist dropped the mother of all bombs on our lives. Yeah, we’d been living with cancer for over a year. Yeah, Lou had been brutalised with 14 months of barbaric treatment. Yeah, it disrupted our lives as we ran the cancer gauntlet while trying to keep some family structure.…
Diagnosis date: June 2017 – Stage IIA (cT2N0) triple negative invasive ductal carcinoma of the left breast. 22mm. Ki67 60% Chemo: Started 12 July 2017 – Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy Three rounds of FEC and three rounds of D (12Jul17 – 24Oct17) From my memory, the tumour shrunk slightly in the first three rounds but then grew…
Biopsy To confirm receptor status and provide tissue for further testing re clinical trial eligibility Consider radiotherapy to rib lesion for pain relief (best to do early rather than need to interrupt systemic treatment) Dr Marita Morgia’s team to arrange appointment Clinical trial JAVELIN PARP Medley trial (avelumab plus talazoparib)– Prof Richard Kefford at Macquarie…
When you first find out that you have breast cancer, your doctor searches for the presence or absence of three receptors, proteins that live inside or on the surface of a cell and bind to something in the body to cause the cell to react. You may have heard of the oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor…
If you or someone close to you has been diagnosed with cancer, you know how overwhelming it can feel. Maybe you’re also getting a lot of confusing information and advice. The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel making decisions. That’s the way I see it. If you asked me a year ago what…