bendamron's Cancer Blog

March 14, 2008

bilirubin and alkalines

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yesterday was a good day for all. i will add that ‘cautionary optimism’ about the following has been practiced well by us all.
dr. otero told me the news last saturday about angel’s bilirubin going down slightly. he stopped to tell me and deneen that he has a little bit of good news. angel bilirubins have gone down slightly (the lower the number, the better her liver is processing bile from her system). any good news is welcome. last friday was a very difficult day for us. dr. otero told us that if something doesn’t start working within the next week and a half to two, we are in trouble. he feels that putting angel on an additional weekly chemo treatment (cetuximab) along with the folfiri wouldn’t hurt a bit, and in the best case could help. but the news i want to share with you are her bilirubin levels and the positive trend since last tuesday (normal range is 0.2-1.2):

tuesday jan 22nd:
chemo day, before infusion began: 7.2

thursday jan 24:
after folfiri infusions: 5.4

friday 25th:
during the tail end of 5fu infusion: 5.2 (no statistical significance)

saturday 26th: 5.5 (no statistical significance)

sunday 27th: 3.9 (statistically significant!)

today: 3.8!

more good news is her alkaline phosphatase levels have dropped during this same period from 647 units down to 503 units (normal range is 40-150)

this is the first bit of good news for some time now! dr otero is saying something is working, but is cautious to pinpoint the cause right now. but it could possibly be the right combo of chemo for angel. we just have to hope this trend continues.

other topics of interests and finagling: angel’s platelet levels have dropped in this same period from 114 to 20 (normal range is 150-300) they are monitoring this closely, and will give her a platelet transfusion if this number reaches 10-15. chemo or another allergic reaction to blood thinners are to blame, will find out later today once blood tests return. we are hoping for the former since angel is basically out of options with blood thinners.

Posted on March 14, 2008 at 6:16:21 PM by angel & ben ( bilirubin and alkalines, 0 comments)