Decisions, decisions, decisions...

December 22nd was the 2 year anniversary of my "craniotomy with partial resection". Wow, what an interesting couple of years.

As we look at the options for treatment going forward we have also reached an roadblock on at least one.

• I have been accepted into the FDA trial (BT-21) for Dr. Burzynski's Antineoplastons (A10 and A2.1) under a compassionate use. We received a phone call tonight from his research assistant, Dr. Barbara Szymkowski confirming that and informing us that we could be starting this new program as early as January 2nd. It is a pretty intense program as the medication will be given through a pump that is connected to my port 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This would require 2 weeks of being there in Houston learning how to manage the pump as well as getting just the right dosage. The bad news is that Insurance doesn't pay for trials (though we've asked and haven't received a no yet) and Burzynski because he doesn't have big research budget like some pharmaceutical companies, has to charge the patient directly. This amounts to over $26k up front and nearly $8k a month. We have also inquired about when his Phase III trials may start, but they were slated to start in 2011 and we haven't seen anything posted on ClinicalTrials.Gov. So barring a miracle this option is not available just now.

• Dr Becdach has suggested at chemotherapy treatment of CPT-11. This was the drug that was under trials at Duke when we visited. We didn't qualify then, but it must be available now. We see Dr. Becdach on Tuesday the 2nd of January.

• We have also asked Dr. Becdach for any Trials that he has available through his facility.

We're learning that it's almost the same as the first go around of treatment each time something doesn't work. You go back and do research, see what options are available, and try to make a choice that makes the most sense.

During this time all we can think of to ask from you is your prayers. Pray for us to be able to choose wisely and that whatever lies ahead of us, that we can always be thankful and always offer thanks to our Heavenly Father for the time that each of us has on this earth.

We do thank all of you for your support and for the generosity of friendship and service that we receive more often than we probably deserve (well, at least Rich!).

More to come...

Rich and Amy