COQ10

Ever since starting this blog there have been several times when I didn’t know what to write.  Well, more accurately, I know what to write, I just don’t know how to write it.  Today is such a case.  The most pressing & amazing news is that Kevin was approved to begin the COenzymeQ10 study tomorrow in L.A! (For those of you following the details, read on; the rest of you can skip this next paragraph)

Kevin has been excited about this new clinical trial from when we first heard about it in May.  It is a nonchemotherapy, high dose vitamin therapy that effects the growth receptors, targeting the fast growing cancer cells.  Kevin loves the idea that it attacks the bad cells, while causing no harm to the good cells.  The requirement to have a 30 day washout period from any chemotherapy or radiation has disqualified Kevin from starting the program again and again.  The doctors finally threw us a lollipop (I’m talking a 800 mg fentanyl lollipop figuratively) suggesting that maybe he could start the clinical trial after only a 14 day washout.  However, when we consulted the calendar, that put our starting date on Labor Day. The doctor’s solution to the problem:  Start the following week on September 12th.  (like taking candy from a baby!!)  So I put to practice an important lesson - it doesn’t hurt to ask.  So I asked.  “What about starting the week before Labor Day?”  I was quickly reminded that that would most likely not be acceptable from the FDA with only a 10 day washout period from Kevin’s last radiation . . but they would ask.  Two days later, Thursday morning, we received a phone call requesting a new CTscan and an appointment in L.A. to sign the consent forms to start the program THIS Monday.  See, it doesn’t hurt to ask.  Speaking of asking . . . .

So, Kevin has been approved to start the COQ10 study tomorrow, which is an answer to our prayers.  It’s difficult to explain the emotion of actually receiving something that you’ve prayed for for a long time . . .and then hoping that you’ve been praying for the right thing.  At this time, Kevin and I both feel like this is the right thing.  His recent CTscan did show cancer progression - in the past 3 weeks, the nodules in his lungs have grown, and there are now nodules in his liver.  Systemic therapy, such as the COQ10 study, is our best hope of slowing down the progression.

So off we go to L.A, and back, and L.A, and back. . .every day this week, then three times a week for the next month(s).  Tomorrow is an 8 hour infusion day so Kevin and I are going to spare ourselves the long drive and spend the night.  I know what you’re thinking - hot date night in L.A. Yep, me, Kevin, his dilaudid pump, and the 8 pillows he sleeps with over, under, and around him.  I won’t say there isn’t anywhere else I’d rather be; but I can say there is no one I’d rather be with.  It is going to be a challenging few weeks, and we hope and pray that Kevin will have the physical strength necessary to endure it.  We ask for your continued prayers on our behalf. . .remember, it doesn’t hurt to ask.