Wednesday 1-29-14

Weight: 122
Blood pressure: start-97/60   finish-115/72
Temp: 98.2
Dosage: 50,000 mg of vitamin C

We have gradually worked up to the 50,000 mg over the last three treatments and now we will just maintain that level 2-3 times a week until we see some results---That could be physical (abdominal swelling goes away/no fluid being retained or drained) or blood work that indicates that the cancer is no longer present. At any rate, Cathy will probably maintain this treatment for a while.

We did learn a couple of things this last time. 1. always ask the nurse if she has the right size needle for the port (she 'thought' it was because it was with the correct ones--it was too big) 2. The 'drip' was supposed to be done in 90 minutes, but the bag was almost full-still-at the end of that time. Turns out, the amount that was in the bag was more than what the nurse thought---so NOW we know the correct drip setting to get the fluid emptied in the 90 minute time frame.

Our church, Trinity Evangelical, had a day of prayer and fasting for Cathy on Wednesday culminating in a prayer service at the church. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful church body and all the friends and family that have engaged in this battle with us! I am reminded of this scripture verse:

So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.   Exodus 17:10-13

You all have been that way to Cathy---supporting her hands when she grows weary---and like Joshua, I believe that we too shall overcome and defeat this enemy!

Thank You--God bless

Mike

Friday's results from Vitamin C infusion #2:

Weighed in @ 116.5 (would like this to be around 120)
Blood pressure = 93/57  (a little on the low side)
Temp = 97.6
She received 25,000 mg of vitamin c over a 2 hour period. (they drip this intravenously through her port)

We had  some blood work drawn on Wednesday per Dr. Rexroth--routine check to make sure that she could receive the vitamin c infusion--there are a couple of conditions that would prohibit Cathy from receiving the infusion, but she does not have those conditions. They also checked her hemoglobin which came back a little on the low side @ 9.5. (no need for a blood transfusion unless it gets below 8)

Great visit with Cathy's Mother, oldest brother and his wife on Saturday, plus got to see our eldest son, his wife, and granddaughter! Hope everyone is staying safe and warm (if you are reading this in our winter wonderland state of Indiana!) God richly bless you.

Mike

Received our first high dose vitamin C on Wednesday. Cathy will be receiving this in Auburn at the Dekalb Hospital every Mon, Wed and Fri. We plan on coordinating these trips with dropping kids off at school and making the run up north (about 30 miles). Side effects from first treatment?---extra energy to get work done around the house!! (we can live with THOSE side effects!!!). There is no 'end game' to this protocol--basically, until the cancer is gone.

Cathy had her sutures from the (abdominal fluid) catheter removed today and drainage done while we were there (they got a liter). That brings our drainage total to 32 liters since the beginning of the year. Her weight has gotten 'too good'. She has gone from 158# (12/31) to 115 (1/22). We will be monitoring her diet more closely to regain some of that weight. We want to prevent the wasting away of her muscles and keep her around 120.

Hoping to see her oldest brother and his wife this Saturday for a visit. They are coming in from Denver and staying with Cathy's mom in Muncie. This will complete the visits from her siblings (what a GREAT family she has---and that I am blessed to be a part of!!)

--Mike

Day of Prayer and Fasting

Dear Friends and Family,

     Cathy's church body invites you to join with them in a day of prayer and fasting for Cathy on Wednesday, January 29th.



Please read this link for more information;

http://www.trinity-evangelical-church.org/webpages1/day_of_prayer.html

Gratefully,
Lori

January 17, 2014

We met with Dr. Aggarwal on Wednesday to discuss Cathy's CT scan and talk about her treatment that she was SUPPOSED to get that day. Dr Aggarwal said that the scan showed 'no progression' of the disease in her liver and the brain and pelvic areas came back 'clean'. That is GOOD news!! She did say that the scan showed what appeared to be cirosis of the liver--possibly caused by the previous treatment plans being "effective" in fighting the cancer. She indicated that the liver (or dying cancer cells) was forming scar tissue that leads to what appears to be cirrhosis. (However, when we met with the liver specialist in town in November, he indicated that he did NOT believe it was cirrhosis.)---Be that as it may, Dr. Aggerwal suggested we NOT do chemo, but instead do the Herceptin with a combo of a hormone drug--neither of them need to be processed thru the liver. That was an answer to prayer, as we did NOT want to go thru the chemo again.

The herceptin was administered today (17th). After the next appointment with the doctor they may add another hormone treatment.

We are still trying to arrange with our family physician to administer a high dose Vitamin C protocol.

Latest blood results: Bilirubin counts: NORMAL!! Hemoglobin almost normal, Albumin and protein are still a little low, but increasing. We have the results for 1 of the two tumor markers we had taken: It registers 337.9 (which is high)---However, it was 3138 in November!! It came way down with NO TREATMENT being given since Nov 20th!! I think that is the result of lots of prayer AND GOD!!

Cathy continues to be drained 1-2 times a day (1.5 - 2 liters). This has allowed her to drop her weight from 156 to 120!! The abdomen has decreased in size dramatically and her feet and legs are not nearly as swollen as they have been. (ANOTHER--PRAISE THE LORD!)

Cathy has enjoyed having her siblings come for visits. She has had her entire family come for visits over the past 3 weeks and her brother and his wife will be coming the 24th--to complete the family visitation. She has also had numerous visits from friends, as well. The visits have been great therapy, in and of themselves!! Thank you ALL for your continued prayers and support.

God richly bless you,
Mike

Wow!!

In considering Cathy's advanced condition and the four treatment options (3 given by the Block Center and 1 given by Dr Aggarwal) we decided to ask Cathy's local family doctor if he would consider implementing the high dose vitamin C infusion protocol that the Block Center has established.

Dr Rexroth was so gracious in his demeanor towards Cathy and agreed to give it a try!! Since he is not familiar with this treatment please continue to pray that all of the details would work out - even that she could have the infusions at home and that insurance would cover the cost.

For those of you who would like to know more, there is a study out of Wichita State University titled "Intravenous Ascorbate as a Tumor Cytotoxic Chemotherapeutic Agent."

We also ask for your prayers that this would be gentle enough on her body yet effective against the cancer cells. Also we praise God for Dr Rexroth.

Gratefully,
Lori

Please call me if you have any questions or would like a copy of this study 260-459-0254

January 9, 2014

Went in to see the local Oncologist, Dr. Aggarwal, on Wednesday (Jan 8th). This was for a routine visit after our weekly blood draw. She said she would be happy to give us her opinion of a treatment plan IF we agreed to make her our one and only PRIMARY care doctor! The Block Center already agreed to allow us the option to treat locally since the treatment plan they recommended could be administered locally, so we agreed to her terms. She did not have Cathy's recent blood results,  but recommended a combination of Halaven (chemo) and Herceptin. This would begin on Wednesday (Jan 15th) and be preceded by a CT scan of the abdomen and the brain (her type of cancer likes to migrate there) on Monday (13th). While we were at Parkview, we stopped by the Interventional Radiology department and had her catheter checked again as her gauze was beginning to soak thru. They re-superglued it and told us to get some new skin from Walgreens if it continued to seep. (Actually, we just like to stop in so Cathy can get a WARM blanket to cover up with! :}) 

I had the blood results faxed to me and here are the results:

Albumin (protein indicator) still low at 2.1 (was 1.9)

Bilirubin (liver functions) creeping up to 1.26 (no chemo zone starts at 2.0)

ALT & AST (liver indicators) still a little high but much better than what they had been  (79 & 76)

Overall a 'mixed bag' of results with the bilirubin being the main focus at this time.

We still haven't gotten into a 'routine' for Cathy's drainage. We were attempting a drain about every 4 hours, but then didn't drain for about 2 days after she had it 'super-glued'. Since then, I have drained her 3 times in the last 27 hours and taken out 3.5 liters of fluid! I am getting a full bag each time in about 5 minutes (used to be 20 minutes to get .3 liter)--don't know if this is good or bad. I guess it must be good to get that kind of liquid off her abdomen, but not sure if it's bad that it is producing that much?

On a personal note: Cathy enjoyed a visit from her mom, Jan (oldest sister), Mark (wife and 3 kids--youngest bro), and Julie(younger sister and her husband). This was the 2nd visit from her sister Jan, who was visiting from Montana and staying with her mom in Muncie. Cathy really enjoys the company! We could really use your continued prayers for: 1) reduction in leg/feet & abdomen swelling 2) wisdom on treatment choice 3) strength to fight the fight daily (she is going through a tough time emotionally/mentally) As always, thank you for your thoughts and prayers!!

Mike

January 4, 2014

Four hours after we had the catheter put in and the initial drainage, we found ourselves going back to Parkview because Cathy's gauze was saturated due to leakage. They drained another liter of fluid and sent her back home thinking the leakage would stop since the pressure was off. However, the saturation continued about every four hours and I went ahead and drained her every time that happened. (The visiting nurse had NOT been here yet to show me the proper procedure, because they don't come out until the day AFTER she is released from the hospital). Fortunately, I was able to see how they drained her when we went back to the hospital to get the 2nd drainage done.( I usually got .3 - .5 liter of fluid with each drain.) I had to close New Years' Day, but have since taken a week of vacation to try and get some structure set up.

The visiting nurse, Vicky, came out 5:30 pm Thursday and did a drainage and checked her out. She called the next day and said we needed to have the catheter site checked by the surgeon because it should not be saturating her every 4 hours. Sooooo, back to Parkview on Friday around 2 pm. They removed the saturated gauze and tried to drain her but could only get about 2 TBSP of fluid (but caused a lot of pain for Cathy). They did an ultrasound and found that there was no fluid to be gotten out--hence the pain was from apparently sucking the bowels up to the tubing on the inside! Most of the fluid that is still there is being trapped just under the skin in the cells (called edema) and this is not drain-able. The Dr. did check out the site and decided to put some 'super-glue' on it (really!!). It is the hospital version of super-glue. It has not saturated the gauze as of 11:00 am Saturday (as I type this). Yea!! He also said that we really shouldn't be draining more than once a day or even less---only as she requires it.

We also got the results from the initial fluid we had drained up in Chicago three weeks ago. They did not find any signs of cancer in the fluid! We are grateful to God for that! We are now trying to decide what form of treatment we need to pursue to once again bring the fight to the cancer. We have been in defensive mode for the past 2 months with low hemoglobin and fluid retention, but now its time to get on the offensive and bring the fight to the cancer. We are hoping to start some type of treatment this week, while I am still on vacation. If  Parkview will work with the Block Center, we would like to do something locally, especially with the winter weather forecasted! Please pray that we will pursue the right treatment plan that will get immediate results without the harsh side effects that Cathy really doesn't need at this point in time.  

Just as an aside, Cathy was not the first Guntle to take a trip to the doctor in 2014, that honor went to our 2nd oldest daughter, Christina, whom I had to take to Redimed New Years morning because her throat was hurting real bad---you guessed it---Strep throat! The P.A. on duty suggested that the rest of the family gargle with hydrogen peroxide and benadryl to kill the strep bacteria before it takes hold. Hope it works! So far, no other signs of strep!

Mike