We went to Dr Chang last evening. As you know we are grasping at straws. At the meeting were both my parents, my sister & I. We all left the meeting feeling like Dr Chang was great. He is clearly very intelligent, he was very personable. He went through his philosphy of treatment which is primarily do no harm, do what make logical and scientific sense and do everything possible to help. He DID NOT push herbs etc. He perscribed for her 3 medications that are used for totally different diseases but that have shown to attack bladder cancer in studies. The thought being that you never know what is going to push you over the edge into survival. (My mothers tumor is HUGE - 17 cm, on her liver, she was given only 3 months.) The three drugs are Cipro (the antibiotic), Celebrex and an anti diabetes drug. None sound like they will help to me but he showed us the studies on them. He was very careful to tell her to take one drug for 5 days then add the next, then the next 5 days later - thought being that if she takes all three at once and has a bad reaction then he needs to take her off all three so he wants her to wean herself into them.
As far as the Xeloda that her Oncologist & Dr Barjoin want her to start taking he was very surprised that they were suggesting it. After we told him her history he understood that Xeloda is a last ditch option that her dr's are trying. He is concered with how it will effect her blood levels because she has a VERY hard time with her platelet levels. Right now she is at 30,000 which for her is high. He gave her (don't laugh) a supplement made from Peanut Husks that he says will help her build her platelets back quickly. Apparently used by the chinese to build blood for years. He told us about an FDA approval that is coming for a drug to improve platelets in next few months. The chinese have already approved the drug and have found that you can become refractory to that drug if it is applied under the skin but seems to have less of a chance to become refractory if put directly into a vein or through a port...but all that said he wants to try the peanut husks before he would recomend the chinese version of the drug. The thought behind this is only to support her abilty to take the xeloda as per its protocal so that it has the best chance of working.
On Monday mom is going to see his partner to look at what she is eating and what she should be eating. Dr Chang asked her to keep track of everything she puts in her mouth...water, drugs, food. She needs to bring that for Dr Yee ( I think that is her name.)
Dr Chang gave us a script for blood work in two weeks to have a study done and then we will go back to him in the 3rd week.
Dr Chang is going to make contact with both of her oncologists via a letter to let them know what he is doing to help support them in the Xeloda. Dr Bajorin from Sloane spoke of Dr Chang on a first name basis and said that he was not sure exactally what he was up to these days but that he respected him and thought highly of his abilities. We have also made an appointment for 3/19 with the alternative medicine folks at Sloan to compare what Dr Chang thinks to what they think.
We are INCREDIBLY interested to see if the peanut husks help the platelets. In my mothers words.."If it works I will think he is a God."
the long and the short...We as a family felt for the $750 it costs to see him...if anything he offers her works... is more then worth the money. I will let you know.
