The Week In Review

It's been a long week for us here and there are several things to
report.

As many of you know, Karyn and I paid a visit to Michael Broffman at
the Pine Street Clinic in San Anselmo last week. It was a great
meeting and Michael is a very knowledgeable person on both western
and eastern cancer treatments. The office is very cool, very mellow
and the staff there were genuinely concerned about our situation.
After about an hour-and-a-half meeting, Michael said he would prepare
a list of treatments that he called "low-tech" that would include
many types of nutritional supplements and chinese herbs. The report
we received was extensive and included prescriptions for the
following items: EPA/DHA Oil, Chinese Herbal Formula (prepared by
Michael), Mega Green Tea Extract, Curcumin Extract, Quercetin
Extract, SODzyme Formula, Banjeri Protocol (Ruta Graveolens 6C and
Calcarea Phosphorica), IP-6, Vitamin D3 and Boswellia Extract. He
included extensive write-ups about each supplement listed and it is
truly impressive.

Additionally, Michael suggested we begin an intensive acupuncture
regime and said that frequency would be the key to helping her left
side. He added that the cost of this could quickly get out of control
and suggested that I come in with Karyn so he could teach me how to
perform acupuncture on her. So, on Tuesday morning at 9am, you can
add acupuncture to one of my new titles which now include shot-
giving, IV administering, pharmacist and armchair cancer researcher.
Karyn and I feel really good about this next step.

Karyn now has a new physical therapist and occupational therapist who
are coming to the house regularly and they have been working out
great. This past week, Jen (the PT) had Karyn walking along the
kitchen counter while she braced her left leg. It was wonderful to
see her doing this again and it is obvious that these sessions are
helping. Two weeks ago she could barely sit up in the hospital bed.

As I wrote earlier, on Wednesday Karyn and I went to UCSF for her 8th
MRI in this whole ordeal. Things went smoothly and we celebrated by
going to In And Out burgers on the way home....though I still say it
should be called "In And Wait".

Today was out follow-up appointment with Dr. Chang at UCSF. I'll
admit now that I was quite nervous about this one as it would be a
look into Karyn's head to see what had been happening over the last 6
weeks. For a tumor capable of doubling in size every 2 weeks, there
was plenty to be worried about. Dr. Chang is really great, she is to
the point and doesn't mix words. She is genuinely concerned about
Karyn's situation. We sat down and began to review the slides from 8
weeks ago (right after surgery), 6 weeks ago (2 weeks after surgery--
taken to find the source of the seepage back when she was in the
hospital) and this last wednesday. It was easy to see the results. In
the 8 weeks that have passed, the scar tissue (that was a direct
result of the injuries sustained during the surgery) had healed about
50%, this was great news. Dr. Chang pointed out out several areas of
scar tissue that were half the size of where they were and some that
had vanished.

Perhaps the best news of all though, was that the little piece of
tumor that had to be left behind had not grown at all and there was
no sign of other tumor activity. She has suggested that we re-start
the Temodar on a 5 day on, 23 day off cycle with an MRI in a month to
re-evaluate what is going on. We feel confident that this is a good
move, especially when combined with the current alternative
treatments---which were all approved by Dr. Chang.

Karyn needed to get the stitches out then wait to see Dr. Parsa since
there were a few issues with the wound. It was good to see him again,
he is also a great person and his concern for Karyn (and all his
patients) is obvious. It turned out to be a marathon day since we
also needed to get a blood draw to make sure Karyn is ready to begin
the Temodar on Tuesday. Then of course, we hit the 3pm traffic on 101
north....it was brutal as everyone was trying to escape for the long
weekend.

Well, as we go into this long weekend, we are all celebrating here
that we finally got some truly good news today, coincidentally the 4
month mark of the beginning this ordeal. We still have many battles
to fight but we are confident that we are on the right path now and
are armed with much more knowledge....and hopefully some good 'ol
fashioned luck. We all deserve it. Karyn deserves it.

~Julian