"Stumbled Out Of The Gate!"

Robert picked himself up and is right back in the race!

It has been a very hectic/scary couple of days to say the least. I will start from the beginning.

We left Monday morning for Robert's PET scan at Baylor, (well, let me go back to Friday, after the medi-port surgery and on our way home we got a call that the insurance company did not approve the PET as of yet. After a very tense conversation with customer service rep, we were not sure they would approve the scan. After speaking to our doctor he assured us we should go ahead with the scan, he felt confident he would get it approved and we could always appeal.) So back to our trip to Dallas Monday morning, the insurance company called and said they did approve the scan, big sigh of relief until Baylor called and said the machine was broke and they were not sure it would be fixed Monday. We told them we were already halfway there so they said to go ahead and come on in. When we arrived we were told that the machine would not be fixed, but they were going to fit us in at the Medical Pavilion building. They said there was a golf cart outside waiting to rush us over and that they did.

Tuesday AM

Robert has Lab work and then appointment with Dr. Nadler to get the scan results.. Our prayers were answered, the scan showed that the cancer had not moved to any other areas. Dr. Nadler congratulated us 3 times, he was very encouraged by the scan. He told us as much as Stage 4C cancer being curable, this was curable. Then they take Robert up to start chemo. He is going to be receiving 3 chemo drugs, one is a new drug he had not had before, the other 2 he had last time, but in small doses. The first drug they administered was called Erbitux, it was to be administered over a 2 hour period and then he would receive fluids for an hour before the started the 2nd chemo drug. The nurse (Lea) gave Robert all his pre-meds. Benadryl and steroids and then started the Erbitux, and had just stepped out of the room for just a minute when Robert had a reaction to the drug. He was having anaphylactic shock due to the drug. It all happened so fast, Robert lost conscientious and was unresponsive for quite some time. The called Dr. Nadler in and when he got there he said push EPI. They did and he told me "Judy, people die from this type of shock everyday, but Robert is not going to die on my watch" I had not even thought about him dying until that moment and said "you mean he could die from this" After the EPI shot he started coming around in about 2 minutes very long minutes. After the EPI shot he still was not responding like he should so they rushed him over to the ER, which was only across the street. Robert was complaining of chest pains and in their words his vitals "tanked". Robert spent the rest of the day in ER, they pushed so many drugs down him there were nurses not even assigned to him coming in just to see the patient who had received all those drugs. He started feeling and looking alot better after a few hours. They ran tests to make sure there was not any damage to his heart from the shock. Robert was released Tuesday night.

Dr. Nadler said that Erbitux was 1/2 mouse and 1/2 human. After consulting with colleagues they are going to try another kind of Erbitux which is 100% human. It is not FDA approved yet, and he thinks the Insurance company will deny, but he feels he will be able to build a very strong case as to why he needs this drug. So we will try this all again next Wednesday. Robert does not have any side effects from all the trauma and drugs yesterday other than he is having a hard time talking. He feels very blessed to be with us today. He said he felt like he was going to be spending Labor Day with Jesus yesterday. Also his words were, "you know I might have stumbled coming out of the gate, but I am still in this race".