Hospital Care Update I Special Hospital Dr. Herzog / Bad Salzhausen

Lou has been in 24-hour medical care with Professor Herzog since the 26th of December. We needed somewhere between treatments that can give Lou the medical support we can’t.

The private clinic is in Bad Salzhausen, 55km’s from where our apartment is in Bad Homburg.

Lou is in a double room so Lynda, Les or I stay take it in turns of keeping her company day and night. It hurts that she can’t be with the kids but it’s one of those hits you just have to wear on the chin.

Unfortunately, we can’t plan a day let alone a week right now, it’s practically hour by hour for decision making.

We’re happy with the clinic, the staff and their services. We just need to get her healthy so we can treat the liver.

A Decision Point For The Next Liver Treatment

Louise was scheduled for her third round of TACE today but her bloods have continued to drop. Her platelets are 10 000 as we speak. A normal platelet count ranges from 150,000 to 450,000 (platelets per microliter of blood). So her platelets are 140 000 short of where we would like them to be……..

TACE or RCT?

Lou has had two rounds of TACE (Trans-Arte­ri­al per­cu­ta­neo­us Chemo-Embo­li­sa­ti­on). She’s scheduled for four.

Leaving for Germany I thought TACE was the same as RCT (Regional Chemotherapy). TACE is definitely a form of RCT but they are administered and managed differently.

I believe the TACE we have done so far has been of benefit. After two rounds (half the liver each round) Lou has had some positive response. Her Pleural Effusion (water in the lungs ) has slowed. Her tumour cell activity has also decreased, which means some aggression has been removed from the liver tumour metastasis. As you know, the metastasis in young triple negative breast cancer patients is angry as all hell.

The decision junction we’re at now is TACE or RCT? While there are several different forms of RCT, the one proposed for Louise is; Isolated Perfusion with chemofiltration.

The big question is; which option/facility/doctor provides Lou with a better chance of taking down the tumours? Unfortunately, not ever being able to know the answer to this question makes for a tough decision.

I’m very mindful of changing treatments halfway through, so I want to leave both doors open until a progress scan provides more data on our current position.  We will acquire a liver MRI when her platelets are on their way back up (>100 000), hopefully within a week.

1.) Professor Vogl and Trans-Arte­ri­al Chemo-Embo­li­sa­ti­on(TACE) Of The Liver

Up to 75% of the nor­mal li­ver tis­sue is per­fu­sed by the por­tal venous sys­tem and on­ly 25% is supplied by ar­te­ries. On the con­tra­ry, li­ver tu­mors are supplied up to 95% by ar­te­ries. Hence che­mo­em­bo­lisa­ti­on of li­ver ar­te­ries lead to de­ve­lop­ment of ische­mic ne­cro­sis in the tu­mor re­gi­on whi­le the re­mai­ning nor­mal li­ver tis­sue is spa­red by suf­fi­ci­ent per­fu­si­on th­rough the por­tal venous sys­tem.

The half-life of a che­mo­the­ra­peutic agent is in­crea­sed by hours to weeks through the stop­pa­ge of blood supp­ly.

The procedure as I know it: Af­ter lo­cal anaesthesia, a punc­ture is ma­de in­to the fe­mo­ral ar­te­ry in the in­gui­nal re­gi­on. Doing this, a small fe­mo­ral sheath is usual­ly placed in the ar­te­ry th­rough which dif­fe­rent ca­the­ters or gui­de-wi­res can be in­s­er­ted.  The ab­do­mi­nal aor­ta with its va­rious bran­ches is vi­sua­li­sed. Then a very small ca­the­ter (mi­cro ca­the­ter) is pas­sed th­rough the li­ver ar­te­ry in­to the ar­te­ry supp­ly­ing the tu­mour and the che­mo­em­bo­lisa­ti­on is per­for­med. You’re gi­ven pain me­ds th­rough in­fu­si­on du­ring the pro­ce­du­re.

The cocktail is usually strong chemo agents. For Louise, for both her rounds, she had 9.88mg of Mitomycin C, 101,96mg Irinotecan, 50,12mg Cisplatin. This is combined with Li­pio­dol and Spherex, these two ingredients block the blood ves­sels.

At the end of TACE Louise was placed in ob­ser­va­ti­on for about three hours du­ring which pos­si­ble com­pli­ca­ti­ons can be dia­gno­sed and trea­ted (which she’s never needed). She also had an MRI before the procedure and a CT after to eva­lua­te the suc­cess of the tre­at­ment and to ru­le out a com­pli­ca­ti­on.

This technique allows the toxicity to be >80 times a systemic dose.

Side effects:

Most sources I’ve read say TACE has mi­ni­mal ad­ver­se ef­fects with very litt­le stress for the pa­ti­ent. This, unfortunately, hasn’t been the case with Louise. The side effects for Louise have been severe. They include:

  1. Extreme nausea
  2. Inability to move/comatose sleep, for well over a week
  3. Doesn’t eat and barely drinks = dehydration
  4. Weight loss – up to 5kg’s
  5. Scrambled brain like she’s extremely drunk, these side effects last for two weeks
  6. Key Blood results decrease significantly, apart from the usual side effects and danger this has, it also delays the next treatment significantly
  7. Massive mental hit

The brain issues are likely to get worse with each treatment, based on treatment one and two. Having her mind scrambled for weeks will have a big effect on her motivation and ability to fight.

2.) Professor Aigner and Regional Chemotherapy (RCT) – Isolated Perfusion of The Liver

In the method suggested for Louise, an arterial port catheter is implanted directly into the tumour-supplying vessel during surgery. This enables the tumour to be treated with the chemo agent over three to four days. This is combined with isolated perfusion where the liver is isolated with a catheter system, so the high cytostatic concentration flows through the liver by means of an external pump.

At the same time heat is supplied to the tumour (hyperthermia) and the oxygen content of the blood supplied to the tumour is reduced.

This method is combined with chemofiltration (extracorporeal detoxification which is like dialysis) to remove excessive amounts of chemotherapeutic agents in the systemic circulation. This is done at the completion of the isolated perfusion phase.

This technique also allows the toxicity to be >80 times higher than a systemic dose.

Side Effects:

None of Aigner’s patients experiences the brain issues Lou experienced with TACE and his patients have a much less severe reaction. “95% have few side effects.”

We’re not guaranteed that Lou will have minimal side effects (as his treating team predicts) but I envisage they will be considerably less.

What’s holding us back from making a decision?

  1. We don’t yet know how effective the two TACE sessions have been
    1. An MRI will assist with this
  2. If Lou has had a reduction in tumour size then we should consider continuing the next two rounds with Vogl
  3. The door with Vogl could close if we go with Aigner
    1. I will ask Vogl if this is the case
  4. We would be changing strategies without completing the current prescribed regime
  5. We don’t know if Aigner’s treatments are as effective as Vogl (It’s something we will never know)
    1. I think that they are as effective but maybe I just want to believe this so its apples for apples on the positive treatment output….

Another big ingredient in the decision is our desire to change the chemotherapy agent/s for either treatment choice if the first two rounds of TACE haven’t had a positive enough effect on the tumours in Lou’s liver. This is a whole subject in itself……..one that I will try and explain in my next post….

Click to view in Google Sheets

A Good Day 😊

Louise had a really good day today. 🤗 It’s the best day I can recall since the 11th of October.  Let me just ask Google how many days that is…………………………………. 77. Boy. That’s waaaaaaaaay too long, 77 days is a very long time to feel like rubbish.

Lou had 1.2 litres drained from her right lung yesterday which was a big help in her feeling well.

We’ve just had 24 hours without an ailment bringing us down.  I really hope we can make it 48. 🙏

I’ll post a detailed update on her health over the weekend. Her bloods are still down and we know we have a garden of cancer/tumours on the liver which we’re battling, but I just thought I would let everyone know that today was a good day. 👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾

I am a massive believer that the mind is the majority contributor to the success of any kind. If you’re not feeling well, confident, healthy and happy, the journey is made that much harder.

That is all.

I Just Thought I’d Post This Amazing Image Of The Burghausen Castle

The Burghausen Castle is about a kilometre down the river from Lou’s clinic.

Here a couple more: (click to enlarge)

Yeah, so Australia didn’t even have a building on it’s land until about 800 years after this castle was founded, in 1025……

And the locals will tell you its the longest castle in the world. Go Burghausen!!

A health update on Lou will be posted in the next few days.  

Louise Got Very Sick Very Quickly After The Last TACE

Well, that didn’t go well. Louise went downhill faster and harder than me on my motorcycle.

On Friday after her chemotherapy liver treatment, I made a prediction she would start spiralling on Monday, with the hope it wasn’t too severe this time. Well, nausea and vomiting started prematurely on Friday night. Then on Saturday, we went to emergency because she couldn’t manage her pain. Then after five days of continuous comatose-sleep, not eating and most alarmingly, the delirious state of confusion, slurred speech and incoherent conversation, it was time to get her into 24-hour care. In hindsight, she should have been in professional care since the procedure.

Lou didn’t want to go to mainstream emergency hospital care and I didn’t want to take her to any clinic, so we had a quick family discussion and I bundled her in the car with her pillow and dooner and drove to Burghausen, close to the Austrian border. The only positive of her being so whacked is that I could make use of the autobahn without her breaking my balls.

Six hours in the car and we were at the Medias Klinikum and in a consult with prof. Dr. med. Karl R. Aigner (who I had connected with in October). Then we had Lou on some fluids and overnight monitored care. It was five days overdue but I’m happy to shoulder the poor judgment and responsibility. She’s here now and that’s the main thing.

This morning, they x-rayed her chest to assess her pleural effusion and also took blood samples to pathology with the results due back today.

Do you know I spent a couple of weeks in a hospital far from here, the university hospital in Innsbruck? It was about a month after I met Lou. Yeah, a “skiing accident.” She was still courting me 😉, so I remember talking to Lou on the hospital pay phone. They didn’t have any English stations on the TV and I was in traction for a few days, it sucked. At least we have two rubbish English stations here now. I also remember sneaking out of the Innsbruck hospital and walking a few kilometres along the river to get a McDonald’s soft serve. I was struggling with the hospital food and my jaw was freshly wired. It’s an interesting and funny story, remind me to divulge one day…….. Sorry, sidetracked, back to Lou.

In all honesty, I don’t mind caring for Lou 24×7 but the only medical experience I have is the dozens of time I have been an inpatient. So a few times lately, when she hasn’t budged for hours and I find myself checking to see if she is breathing and warm, I say to myself, “what the fuck is going on? How are we in this position right now and why am I researching on the internet at 1 am to see why her brain isn’t working and if it’s going to recover. It’s a crazy world sometimes and we’re defiantly in the depths of its ugliness.

So the short-term objective is to get Lou well enough to have a family Christmas back in Frankfurt. Lou’s mum Lynda is shouldering the kids care right now in our Bad Humberg Airbnb and Lou and I want to get back for Christmas Eve. Most importantly to make sure Santa comes by that night. Noah can write now so his wish lists on route to the north pole are pages long out of control. We better be there to answer him if a select few of his requests are not delivered on the 25th.

So I sign this post off from a hospital bed, lined up next to Lou’s, while she receives a big bag of liquid food through her chest port. She seems at ease in the comfort of care here. She’s eaten a little today, she’s still talking nonsense but the colour has returned to her face and I believe she’s on a north-east pointing recovery-trajectory.

Where Are We At Right Now? Hmm..

Some quotes from Professor T Vogl I jotted down Verbatim:

“the amount of tumour tissue in the pleura is better, the reduction of fluid is also becoming now less.”

“With the liver, we always have a problem, we treat one area and of course, we cannot treat the whole liver,  other areas are still in activity.  Overall it’s now stabilising more in the liver.”

“If you take the total tumour volume, if you say we do one half of the liver and then the other is still a little active, I think there is some reduction.”

“To me, more importantly, the activity of the cells is lower.”

“The problem in your ribs is not cancer, the pleura is near there”

“Your type of cancer is very aggressive”

What does all of this mean? Hmm.

26 Days In Germany

Louise getting a blood transfusion in the Frankfurt University Hospital

We’re closing in on a month in Germany, I’m honestly not sure if the time has gone fast or slow. Being in a foreign country, a place I’ve never previously visited, a place with much to do and see but it’s somewhat of a blur.

On occasions, you get a minute to appreciate some architecture, heritage, the landscape or some history but mostly you live in a distracted space consumed by the reason you’re here.

The Good: Lou’s health is the best it’s been since arrival. She’s been out of the apartment for small adventures every day since Wednesday. She’s been eating too which is essential. Her brain function and memory have improved out of sight from a week ago.

The Bad: The fluid is building in the chest again. She’s scheduled to have it removed on Wednesday afternoon. Until we get on top of the liver tumours, it’s an issue that will continue to haunt.

The Ugly: The pain. Lou’s got pain in her liver and back. Pain is a constant reminder of the nightmare you are trying to get a reprieve from.

Despite the good, bad and ugly, we’re always determined to make sure the kids are comfortable.  Lynda, Les, Lou and myself all work hard to ensure they’re happy and they are. Noah and Evie are far from their own home, cousins and friends but they are being champions. I’m very proud.

Today we decorated our Christmas tree, it’s an absolute monster of a tree and perfect in stature.

Lou has a big week this week with the other half of the liver scheduled for local chemo/TASE on Friday. Progress scans will also detail where we’re at.

A Kick In The Face When You’re Down

So Lou’s right lung is full of fluid again. If you look up side effects for “pleural effusion” you will get:

  • Shortness of breath
  • A dry cough
  • Pain
  • A feeling of chest heaviness or tightness
  • Inability to lie flat
  • Inability to exercise (or move in our instance)
  • Generally feeling unwell (Understatement)

She fits that textbook description to a tee.

We received a big blow today with one of Lou’s treating doctors delivering his candid opinion on Lou’s situation. Dr Arhnold said that Lou’s liver is not healthy enough for his treatments. He said that she should be in palliative care. Ouch.

He said the large liver tumour and tumour cells are next to the right lung, this would be causing the fluid issues. His radiologist took me through the MRI’s and said that 80% of Lou’s right liver lobe is covered in metastasis.

He said that her brain function and memory issues are a result of the compromised liver and also the chemotherapy. The tumours, low bloods, poor oxygen levels, fluid in the chest and the chemo drugs is the reason she is so unwell. That all makes sense but it’s a real blow to have a Doctor express that his treatments won’t help her.

Dr Vogl still wants to help. Vogl will remove the fluid at 1pm tomorrow. It’s a painful procedure so Lou’s not exactly excited about it. He plans to do the other half of the liver (Transarterial chemoembolization – TACE) on the 14th.

Nothing much positive to add today. It is what it is.

Lou Is Really Struggling

So we’ve finally moved into an apartment, we’re in a beautiful town called, Bad Homburg. It’s a close distance to the two clinics we visit daily. The kids now have play space with neighbouring parks. Hopefully, we get a little time to explore and familiarise ourselves with the area. It feels very German. It’s beautiful.

Lou is really struggling. The fatigue is next level. She’s been like a hibernating bear since the 18th of October. Non-stop sleep and every movement a struggle. Endless nausea for months now.

She’s in the depths of her biggest emotional battles. 😞

We’re only doing a fraction of the treatments we’d hope to be doing here in Germany. Some of the infusions I was very interested in that include ingredients like curcumin, resveratrol and 6-Shogaol, she hasn’t had since the 20th of November. She hasn’t had regional hyperthermia since the 22nd. For the last seven days, Lou has only been able to have a cut-down treatment regime of substances to aid her recovery.

Even though the TACE (regional chemo) is liver-specific, her body seems to be struggling with it.

With her liver compromised along with “chemo brain,” her mind and thought function is the worst it’s been. It’s like she has dementia.

I’m worried that the fluid is building in her thorax again, I’d be surprised if it’s not. She seems to be displaying the same symptoms.

Hopefully, she’s well enough to get the other half of her liver treated with Professor Vogl this week. It’s a real double-edged sword because we want to mitigate the liver tumours to give us time to focus on the body but it’s more than likely she will remain extremely unwell.

*Sigh.

Our First Unplanned Trip To A German Hospital

That’s not a bag of urine, beer or ice tea. It’s a litre of fluid drained from Lou’s right lung. The reason she hasn’t been eating and has had 24/7 nausea.

The tube was still attached in the pic, and the bag drained another .5 of a litre making it a rounded 1.5-litre, collected through thoracentesis. A procedure in which a needle is inserted into the pleural space between the lungs and the chest wall to remove excess fluid from the area.

Guten Morgan

It’s only 8pm in Frankfurt but the kids and Lou have been out for an hour. It’s blissfully quiet. Just that very faint hotel murmur, humming somewhere unidentifiable in the background.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be waking in my own home right now, getting Noah dressed in his budgies so he can dominate the flags at nippers. Then rushing home to sneak off to the MX track to spin a few laps. Returning for one of McConkey’s prawn paster Sunday specials.

I’m happy here though. The kids have settled in and have been sleeping to the central European standard clocks and not their own messed up time that was causing me some torture.

We’ve sold 397 tickets to Lou’s event, amazing really. Do you think we can get to 500 in ten days time? If you haven’t purchased a ticket and live near Sydney, pull the trigger. “Chk Chk Boom” – Clare Werbeloff May 2009

Lou and I are obviously not going to make her very own party. There are some positives in this.  If Lou was home, she’d be under self-imposed pressure to attend. If the party was on any of the last four or five Thursday’s. I dare say she wouldn’t have made it. Being a few kilometres from the Greenwood, in bed, would have upset her.

Lou would have wanted to speak to the audience also. This would have been an unneeded burden. Her anxiety from certain medications along with the constant fear that comes with an “incurable disease” may have been too much. Being in Germany has removed her from any planning and event pressure. She will be sad she’s not there. My dream is to have a remission party that she can dance at, in full health.

We know you will party and party hard on her behalf. As I have mentioned, YOU, are the reason we are here in Deutschland.

Lou is really struggling right now, physically and mentally. She’s in a rut proving difficult to get out of. I documented a brief post with some detail here.

I managed a quick trip to the zoo with the kids on Thursday, It was fun but nothing on Taronga. Noah and I hit the ice together this morning (wow, that doesn’t sound right), I’d prefer to be putting in some turns on some skis but a skate is pretty fun.

Evie Byrne at the Frankfurt Zoo, easting an ice block when it's about 3 degrees.
Evie eating an ice block, not my choice of snack at 4 degrees…..
Noah Byrne at the zoo in Frankfurt Germany
Noah and one of his new buddies.
Noah Byrne and the Frankfurt Ice Skating Park
Noah’s little penguin helping with some stability on the ice
Evie and Noah Byrne on the way to the indoor pool
Just so you know, I don’t dress Evie like this when its 6pm and zero degrees. It’s just how she rolls.

It’s amazing how much you can love your own children. A limitless level of some sort. xx

 

Current Treatment Regime – Frankfurt

The objective is to achieve four individual regional chemo liver sessions (half the liver per session) with Professor Vogle between November and January.  In between these sessions, receive as much complementary therapy as possible.

Univ. Prof. Dr. med. Thomas J. Vogl

Transarterial chemoembolization/chemoperfusion; Abdomen Rotation Vom. Puncture of the femoral. Introduction of a 5F lock. Careful positioning of a pigtail catheter. Incorporation of a cobra catheter. 9.88mg mitomycin, 101, 18 mg irinotecan, 50, 2mg cisplatin, 5 ml Lipiodol occlusion, 180 mg EmboCept. Other: 3mg Granisetron, 20mg Dexacortin, 100mg Pethidine

Dr. med. Jürgen Arnhold

Curcumin: Is a substance found in the spice turmeric and has long been used in Asian medicine to treat a variety of maladies. It has antioxidant properties, to decrease swelling and inflammation. Inflammation appears to play a role in cancer.

Shogal; Is a biochemical produced during drying and cooking of ginger roots. It is active against tumour stem cells in concentrations which are harmless for healthy cells. The raw ginger extract can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells

Resveratrol;  A dietary polyphenol derived from grapes, berries, peanuts, and other plant sources. Resveratrol affects all three discrete stages of carcinogenesis (initiation, promotion, and progression) by modulating signal transduction pathways that control cell division and growth, apoptosis, inflammation, angiogenesis, and metastasis.

Photodynamic Therapy: A photosensitizing agent is injected into the bloodstream. The agent is absorbed by cells all over the body but stays in cancer cells longer than it does in normal cells. Approximately 24 to 72 hours after injection. When most of the agent has left normal cells but remains in cancer cells, the tumour is exposed to light. The photosensitizer in the tumour absorbs the light and produces an active form of oxygen that destroys nearby cancer cells.

In addition to directly killing cancer cells, PDT appears to shrink or destroy tumours in two other ways. The photosensitizer can damage blood vessels in the tumour, thereby preventing the cancer from receiving necessary nutrients. PDT also may activate the immune system to attack the tumour cells.

Dr Gerhard Siebenhüner

IPT (Insulin Potentiation Therapy); Normally this therapy is done with a low dose of chemotherapy. However, because Lou still has chemo in her liver from the TACE, this process helps the chemo in her body do its thang.

DCA Infusion: The aim of this drug is to kill off cancer cells, while not harming healthy cells. DCA turns on natural apoptosis (cell death) in the cancerous cells. It also blocks the process by which glucose is used by cancer cells, thus removing their energy source and starving them. Without blocking the glucose of healthy cells.

High Dose C:  Vitamin C breaks down to generate hydrogen peroxide, which can damage tissue and DNA. The new study shows that tumor cells with low levels of catalase enzyme activity are much less capable of removing hydrogen peroxide than normal cells, and are more susceptible to damage and death when they are exposed to high doses of vitamin C.

Artesunat Infusion:  A substance from the annual mugwort, has a destructive effect on rapidly growing cancer cells. Tumour cells have much higher iron concentrations than healthy cells due to their extremely accelerated rate of cell division. Artesunate gets into the heavily iron-loaded cancer cells, spontaneously large amounts of so-called free radicals are released, which damage the cancer cells and finally destroy. Recent studies show that Artesunate interferes with the neovascularization of the tumour. In this way, the tumour cells can be cut off from the blood supply and starved,  this reduces the possibility of metastasis formation.

Extracorporeal Regional Hyperthermia EHY-RG: This involves artificial heating of the affected areas of the body to temperatures above 40.1 degrees Celsius. This is done by irradiation of electromagnetic waves. The body surface is protected by water cooling of the overlying irridation head. Heat can harm or kill cancer cells by damaging proteins and structures within the cells. Heat also damages blood vessels inside of tumours and causes less blood flow to the tumour, which can help slow its growth.

The above list of infusions and hyperthermia is alternatively managed by Arnhold and Siebenhüner and worked around Vogl’s TACE

  • Note added in December: We were not able to continue with all of the above-intended treatments. Lou’s liver is not healthy enough. We have only been doing a reduced amount of infusions to aid recovery. 

A Win Is A Win, Even If It’s Small

A small win with a ling way to go.

Lou is still very unwell but we had our first small win yesterday. Her big tumour on her liver that has been growing uncontrollably has shrunk by 5% in surface area and 7% in volume. This occurred over a seven day period.

It is a small win and hopefully validation we are doing the right things and moving in the right direction. We haven’t had any good news since a slight decrease in the tumour in September last year, fifteen months ago. So we need to take the win and use it as motivation and reward.

It’s such early days, there can be fluctuations and I have a small worry that the cancer takes a hit and builds resistance. It’s hard not to have some negative thoughts after such a shit journey.

But today it’s a win. And we’ll work hard for another consecutive win. We’re due for a little success.

I feel like we’ve earned it.

Fick Krebs!

We're nit having much success but we are still shooting

Lou’s second round of liver treatment scheduled for today was postponed until the first week of December. She’s been extremely unwell since we arrived, with little to zero energy. Her white and red blood cell numbers are down, they’re a tad high for transfusions but low enough to keep her on struggle street.  She’s fatigued and unhappy. Yep, Fick Krebs.

We’ve been dealing with three doctors  and they’re all very candid when they say things like, “it’s serious” or “Louise’s situation is very critical.” The size of the tumours, the number of lesions and the swelling of the liver is very concerning.

While we missed today’s primary treatment, we have been doing complimentary therapies every day this week and we will continue to do them, indefinitely.

We will be in Germany for a minimum of eight weeks. We’ve found a place in a nice town called königstein, it’s the town that Lou will continue to get the majority of her daily treatment. We will inspect the little Deutsche dwelling on Saturday and if the patient gives it the thumbs up, we’ll be in on Sunday.

It’s been one of Lou’s toughest weeks. The positive is that today has been her best day in seven days.  I truly believe we are in the best location to turn things around.  We’re working on making tomorrow a better day again.  Peace.

 

Deutschland Update

It was a very long journey door-to-door. Lou got here as good as we’d hoped and the kids were absolute champions. I couldn’t have asked for more.

We’ve been here for three days. She’s had one targeted treatment session on the liver with another scheduled for Thursday.

She starts some full body treatment today as well.

Lou isn’t feeling that well but she’s here, the family is here and we are doing all we can to get back some control.

Fick Krebs!

RCT (Regional Chemotherapy), The Objective Is To Buy More Time

I’m attempting to talk about RCT, I think you’ll find it hard to comprehend while Evie is busy “on the phone.” 😂 I do pretty well at staying on track. (you’ll see her walking around in the background “talking to her cousin Billy” – classic)

Hey Evie, the phone is upside down!

I think this next video is a great visual of how RCT works, along with some of its applications.

Stories like Nada’s also give you the confidence and motivation to aid a decision. We know that Lou may not respond in any way as Nada did, but we will know if she responds and how, this very month.. ………Gotta be in it to win it…..

The two videos were created by Brian Hunt, Nada’s husband. I’ve been in contact with Brian for some time, to share our stories. Nada was treated at a  Clinic in Burghausen Germany, called Medias.  I had some direct contact with Prof. Dr. med. Karl R. Aigner who is a pioneer in the field of regional chemotherapy and heads up the clinic. We really liked him. We ended up prioritising Profesor Vogl but Aigner is definitely a sound option.

Elysia and I have been talking to patients and doctors all over the world since August this year, a bit like obsessed crazy people. While we’ve been perpetually prioritising; the time, the situation and conversations naturally massage your list of options into order. When it feels right to move, you move.