Eric’s Carcinoid Journey

The week started Monday after an early morning trip from Busselton to Fremantle Hospital (three hours drive). It was a full day of testing and scans. We also met with Eric’s oncologist, Dr Philip Claringbold. Dr Claringbold is overseeing the Lu-177 CLEMENT study, so he is now doubling up as Eric’s oncologist.

Dr Claringbold prescribed anti-nausea drugs as well as the Capecitabine tablets. The Capecatibine is the drug being used in the study to hopefully accentuate the effectiveness of the Lu-177. It is this effect that the study is really looking at. Capecitabine is normally a chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of breast cancer and has been known to cause significant nausea.

In the case of the CLEMENT study the dosages used is about half the breast cancer treatment rate and so it is expected that the nausea from the drug will be significantly reduced if not felt at all.

There were transmission and CT with contrast scans, blood tests and of course the collection of the 5HIAA 24 hour urine kit.  Dr Harvey Turner took quite a bit of time to explain all the procedures and answer our questions and while Eric was having his scan took Leonie on a guided tour to the day surgery unit so we would not get lost in the morning. 

We had Tuesday off ….while Eric carried his collection bottle in a discrete bag around Perth… and returned to Fremantle Hospital Wednesday morning at 8:15 am to the Day Surgery Unit.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Fremantle Hospital, lu-177 CLEMENT study, procedures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.