Pills and Biopsies

Ed and I picked up a new drug yesterday at the Huntsman Pharmacy. It is called Palbociclib or Ibrance (trade name). The second name is much easier! Dr. Halwani wants to try it on me, as I have some markers that it is targeted for. This drug is approved for breast cancer patients with that same marker, but not for patients with BPLL (my special malady). They are petitioning the insurance company to pay for it, but as it is off-label, they will probably deny our second and third appeals. In an effort to get started with treatment again, Ed said, "let's just pay for it out of pocket." The doctor was surprised but happy to find a good solution. We said it is just about the same price as the vacations we've missed over the past year, since we've had to cancel them all! Hopefully, it will be approved and paid for eventually, as it is pretty pricy! The markers in my bone marrow were found by a new test called Next Generation Sequencing. It has only been out a couple of years. I'm probably the only BPLL person this drug has been tried on. However, there are other blood cancers that are also experimenting with the same drug.

The nodule on my hip has suddenly become large again. It was biopsied on Tuesday. The doctor was afraid it was full of new cancer cells. But it could also be just an inflamed irritation around the mass. We'll find out soon. Either way, we can have it irradiated/

I also had another bone marrow biopsy yesterday (ouch) to get a baseline before I start the new medication. We stopped at Mom's house after our doctor visit, then went to the Spaghetti Factory afterwards to wait for traffic to die down. We read the instructions for my new chemo pill while we were there.

Happily, my platelets have also come up to 55! Not great, but enough to start this less invasive treatment than the one I was on before.