Quick trip for Mom and I down to Houston for an initial follow up on the clinical trial Cycle 1, Day 1 which was Friday, April 12. Our fearless leader was in Lubbock for the annual Huffman Lecture Series which was a great success. 🙌 We traveled by plane for the first time and learned a few things for sure - thankful for those amazing assistants! Good reminders of how much a little patience and kindness can go so far!

As a reminder, this trial is a combo treatment of T-DM1 (once every 3 weeks via IV to kill HER2 molecules/receptors) and Tucatnib (daily pills to block HER2) together to target the mutant gene and work on both the brain spots & the original perpetrator, the lung cancer.

Mom has definitely responded differently to this round of chemotherapy. Where last fall it felt as if we watched it shrink the tumors to give her relief of her symptoms, this time we saw the nausea and foggy brain with each new day. She is exhausted an may fall asleep mid conversation, so please take no offense! I lost her today even mid discussion on a great new lip stain/color! 😆

The amazing nurse practitioner, Jessica, reviewed her labs with us. Of course they are monitoring everything - white blood cells, red blood cells, liver enzymes, kidney function, etc. I know there were 2 items she shared were “our fault” because the drug was created to cause change. One of those was in relation to the liver enzymes which she suspected taken two days later would be at the point where we needed to pause and re-assess. The other concern was the kidney function that showed an issue regarding nutritional intake and hydration. Together we decided that with the amount of nausea and exhaustion Mom was dealing with, the best thing would be to pause and allow her body to recover a bit from this initial punch. So we will work on nutrition, hydration and rest to allow her body to recover some strength. We will be back next week to assess with more bloodwork/follow up. We expect they may need to make some adjustments to her dosage of the Tucatnib moving forward. They are always looking to strike a balance of attacking the cancer versus the inevitable side effects. We continue to be grateful for the gracious, kind and patient providers and staff of MDA. They are truly amazing.

I am in awe of this woman who raised me. She is a true warrior. She is gracious, patient and kind through this brutal battle and I continue to learn from her. We laughed about how she was once teaching me to drive and now I am wheeling her around MDA - I wish I had a picture of us rolling down the ramp today with her hands held up as if we were on a roller coaster. We are always good for some fun. Life is such a gift. Hug your people and tell them how much they mean to you everyday! I was so grateful Nonnie & Gramps were at our house before we left for another big milestone - seeing Micah off to her first prom. 😍

Please pray with us that her nausea would subside so we can get her eating good and hydrated in order to regain some strength for our visit next week. Pray that her labs would look good and the providers will be able to adjust the Tucatnib dose appropriately to get this cancer to retreat! 🙏