How time flies...

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I last posted. Sorry about that. No news is good news and that's the case here. Craig is doing well, still battling the eating and digesting of food every day but he's feeling fairly good and participating in life. His weight is still good and the tumors seem to be stable. His blood work at the doctor yesterday suggested anemia but that's to be expected with a chronic illness. Tumor markers are good: 6262. Even lower than last time. He'll have a scan at the next appointment in May.

The Sutent drug is still working as far as we can tell and we are so grateful to have it. We did receive good news last week that Pfizer has approved us for another year! Hurray! The drug is on the market now so we were afraid they might say to go through our insurance. The problem with that is our prescription deductible is $1000 and the maximum out-of-pocket is $4000 per year. With Sutent at $6000 per month, we'd get 1/2 of the first month paid and that's it. Sutent is seriously saving his life. It's not actually a chemo pill as I have suggested before but it does two things I've copied from the website:

SUTENT may slow or stop some cancers. It works by blocking 2 basic processes that cause tumors to grow and spread. These processes are called proliferation and angiogenesis.

Proliferation:
This is when a cell divides, creating 2 cells where there used to be only 1. Like the other cells in your body, cancer cells divide. The difference is that cancer cells divide more times than they should, forming a tumor. SUTENT may help slow down this process.


Angiogenesis:
This is when new blood vessels form. These new blood vessels give tumors the nutrients and oxygen they need to grow. SUTENT may help stop this process.

SUTENT may help stop proliferation and angiogenesis by blocking the signals that cause them. Without these 2 processes, tumors cannot grow.

Craig really is the poster child for Sutent. His results are fantastic and we just hope and pray they will continue to be that way for a long time.