Change

The doctor called me up this afternoon as she promised. They had discussed my situation in the department meeting this morning. They had come to the conclusion that the current chemo regime is no longer working as the tumours have not decreased in size significantly since the February CT scan. My new regime will contain only one drug which is marketed as Camptosar. I will get it as IV once a week for four weeks in a row. Then there will be a two weeks rest period. The plan is to start it next week if my platelets count is good enough.

I asked why they wouldn't combine Camptosar with Avastin and she said it is because of my the situation with the platelets as Avastin could also have a negative impact.

In yesterday's discussion with the doctor, my wife asked about a drug called Erbitux that could be combined with Camptosar. The doctor promised to bring this up in the department meeting. In today's call she said that they will add Erbitux to my new chemo plan only if my cancer cells "express EGFR". Actually, I've no clue what this means even after reading about it. They will use the biopsies of my tumours taken last summer to determine EGFR expression. If there is a positive finding, they'll put Erbitux in as well.

The Eurovision Song Contest festival is on. My wife is a big fan. I would say there's one country this year that has got something special. It's Armenia with the song "Jan, Jan". According to the Norwegian media, Norway is again among the favourites.