One Week Down!

Thank you ALL for the generous donations we've received through the PlumFund. I can't believe we're over half way! It's truly inspiring and we all did a happy dance the minute it hit 50k. Please keep sharing it on Facebook so we can get more exposure. This treatment, like all the other ones, is off-the-charts expensive and it makes me nauseous to think insurance gets away with paying for almost nothing. 

First dinner away from the house.

Layla’s treatment, last week, ended on Thursday with Oxygen therapy treatment followed by an infusion of Taurolidine. She kept getting nauseous in spite of all the anti-nausea drugs. She could only tolerate half of the taurolidine that was scheduled for that day. We hope to ramp it up next week. There is no treatment Friday through Sunday. This allows her to recover on the weekend.

Taurolidine day.

Although Layla was not feeling great most of the weekend we managed to sneak in a walk to the beach, a pool swim, movies and dinner. Our main problem is keeping Layla’s nausea under control. It’s very important to keep her weight loss to a minimum during this treatment. Her nausea seems to also be triggered by a new drug that Dr. Rosenberg has her on. It’s called Tetrathiomolybdate (TM). TM is an anti-angiogenic copper chelator, which means it strips her system of copper. There is evidence that depleting copper from a patient aids in inhibiting tumor growth.  Here is a LINK to the on-going study that is yielding very promising results. This would have been nice to have to prevent metastasis, had we have known about it before. Dr. Rosenberg is attacking the cancer from all possible angles.

Walked to the beach.
Snuck in a movie.

Today is Monday, the first day of the second week. Layla started her day with Oxygen treatment followed by Taurolidine infusions. It is being infused very slowly to lessen the nausea associated with it. 

Missy, the therapy dog.

Taurolidine is comprised of Taurine, the most abundant free amino acid in the heart, retina, skeletal muscles, brain and leukocytes. It is an antibiotic used to prevent infections during surgery. There is ongoing research showing that it inhibits the growth of cancer and it is widely used in Europe. She was getting a lower dose when we were in Vienna. It could only enhance Layla’s treatment in concert with the vitamin C, the oxygen, the low dose chemo and all the supplements and medicines she is on.

Trying to get those calories in!

We are less anxious this week and happy to have a routine. Thank you all again for your donations, emails, messages and well wishes!!!
More words to live by.

With love,

Layla, Nina, Samara and Olaf
Location: Highland Beach, FL 33487, USA

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