Clinical Trial

This is Becky.  I read Tara's post and am posting what I have been reading about the clinical trial.  We had so much information to wade through all at once - it was hard to sift through it.  I'm now in the "sifting" process.  I spend time looking up healthy recipes, going to Sprouts, reading some of the materials I have and returning to my other life also.

So, here's what I know:

720 people will take part in this study.

It starts Week 4 of radiation and is administered intravenously every 2 weeks.  During Tara's 4 week break of no radiation and no chemo; she'll still have this. Good news is that she may not have many noticeable side effects of this medicine.

The name of this drug is Bevacizumab.  I'll call it Beva.  Beva can interrupt the body's ability to grow new blood vessels, causing tumors to shrink.  There is also information that demonstrates that beva may eliminate poorly formed blood vessels in tumors, resulting in improved blood flow.  This improved blood flow may result in better delivery of chemotherapy agents.  Beva may be better than either the chemo alone or the beva alone for treating some types of tumors.  The study doctors want to see if this will be true for Tara's kind of tumor.  Once again, we will have no idea if she's on the placebo or on the real deal.  I think with all our prayers and faith, if she needs to be on the real deal, she will be and if it's not going to help her, she'll be on the placebo.  Maybe that's too simple of an attitude; but that's how I'm dealing with this. We are praying and she'll get the help she needs.  I have to believe that.  There have been so many instances of witnessing the Lord's hand through all of this already.  He won't abandon us now.

We are learning we have to travel around knowing what medicines Tara is taking, present ID and insurance cards, carry snacks, etc.  Yesterday Tara said when she and Josh got to work it looked like she was on a camping trip - she had a big pad to take naps on, a blanket that will reach her toes instead of just wrap around her torso, and a cooler with her breakfast and lunch in it.  She gets cold.  The chemo makes her cold.  She'll have to wear a sweater when she's in A/C like I do.  Thank heavens it's summer and if she's too cold all she has to do is step outside and warm up.  This is weird because Tara has never been the one to get cold.  All these medicines have side effects that we are noticing.  Thank heavens radiation does not last too long.  That 4 week break will be a blessings.   I don't like Tara having radiation; but I do like driving around in the car with Tara and getting some time with her that way.  She is amazing and I love her more than she'll ever know.