Letter to Caringbridge and Update from Houston

Here's an email I sent to the Caringbridge folks about the thermometer over there to the right. I realize that in the scheme of our lives, this is not that high on the list but it's kind of important to us.

Dear Caringbridge,
Thank you for your reply to my email concerning your "thermometer" on the website.
I have no problem with Caringbridge fundraising and as I've said, we and our support network have donated and (until recently) planned to continue our support past the end of Charlotte's treatment. My problem is with the use of Charlotte's name as if the donation will be going to help her directly. It is very misleading. This has already been a problem as a friend of ours clicked on the link and sent a donation to Caringbridge thinking it was going to Charlotte. He is not happy and several of our fellow Caringbridge users aren't either. We've heard that other users have complained and have also been refused by you. Not the way to garner loyalty.

I will make my request only once more, please take Charlotte's name off of the thermometer ad. Paying or not paying a fee for the service is not an issue for us. Having our name associated with an organization with questionable ethics is. The thermometer idea is great. Just take the names off of it and make it clear that it's for Caringbridge and not the user. It's especially confusing when the users (like us) are frequently in the middle of fundraising themselves.

In case you didn't notice, we have over 90,000 hits from about 700 independent viewers. How many more people are following other patients as well? I would say it's very bad business to piss off that many people at once.

I've been shouting the praises of CB all over the place. I even told someone about it this morning so I have not given up on you yet. Do right by us and it could be very good for you. Refuse us, and our friends, again and we're gone. Your choice. Personally, I really like CB and don't want to leave but I have discussed it with my family and we will.
Instead of forcing this on us, why not enlist our help? Obvoiusly, there is a great deal of organizational experience here.
Sincerely,
Roger Reynolds

Don't hate them yet. We'll give them a chance to work with us. CJ update later!


Alright, here it is now, your moment of Zen...

I will warn you that I have had a very long day (and two margaritas) so I apologize in advance for any typos or "crazy talk".

We made it to and through the behemoth that IS MD Anderson fairly well. The shuttle got us to the hospital without much ado and with the help of some handy greeters, we found our way to the children's clinic.

WOW! It's quite an operation. Similar in scope to the ASK clinic at MCV but even more impressive. There was a LARGE playroom and lots of books to keep CJ more than amused. While we were there, the music therapist stopped in for a session with the kids. It was well attended and Charlotte joined in the fun after some encouragement. She even got in a request for Frosty the Snowman.

The receptionists and all the staff just LOVED her bald chicks rock shirt that she wore proudly today. She made fast friends with everyone and charmed the pants off of just about everyone in breathing distance. That's our girl.

I filled out oodles of paperwork, summarizing for the umpteenth time Charlotte's birth history, health history, developmental milestones, etc. Seriously...can we not get electronic records that automatically transfer this stuff from doctor to doctor???

I also dropped a check for $2500 for the evaluation. Turns out we are out of network here in Houston so we will start paying down that $8K deductible. Thanks to the fundraisers...we couldn't be here without you!

Our appointment for paperwork was at 9:30 and our appointment for Dr. Wolff was 10:30. We made it in to see the doc about 11 am (not bad for getting squeezed in at the last minute). Dr. Wolff came in, met us, greeted Charlotte, and got the "low down" on her history and scans. He explained the procedure with the evaluation of her tumor and how the process works and then decided to send us immediately over to see Dr. Brown in the research area of the medical school. He told us to wait and that he would get us directions and then he promptly left the building...

We were kind of left in limbo land for a while but eventually got a medical data specialist to walk us over to the medical school herself (it was about a four block walk). Meanwhile, we got to hear her interesting story: she was living in New Orleans during Katrina and ended up needing to evacuate. Interestingly (still..) she stayed during the hurricane at Nicolas Cage's house (a friend of a friend) in New Orleans and then ended up borrowing his car to get out of the city since their cars were flooded out. Crazy! She ended up in Houston and hasn't been back since.

So we met with Dr. Robert Brown who is a researcher at the University of Texas Medical School. He is also a graduate of MCV (go figure!). He shared a few journal articles which he has published on this process. The official term is morphoproteomics (for any of you interested in googling it). The science behind it is pretty much beyond my capability but basically this is a VERY new and VERY experimental process used for cancers and other diseases for which typical therapy is not successful. According to Dr. Wolff, only about a dozen people have been through this process before Charlotte and maybe only one her age. The doctor will look at the tumor markers under a microscope and analyze the life cycle of the tumor. By this process, they will recommend directions for therapy which may include drugs that are off-label (i.e. they are not typically used for cancer treatment) and/or drugs that may not have been tested on children. All the drugs are FDA approved but they may not have been through clinical trials with kids.

SOOO...we basically told Dr. Brown that we wanted to move forward with things. He gave us things to ask for (more tumor slides after Charlotte's next surgery) and we headed back towards MD Anderson for lunch. We ended up at one of the many eating establishments available on this campus where there was (surprise) a Chick-Fil-A! Hooray.

After lunch, we went back up to the clinic. We weren't exactly sure when Dr. Wolff would see us again but we knew that he was expected back from a lecture about 2 PM. Charlotte resumed her playing in the playroom and we met volunteers and child life folks who helped give her (and us) some extra TLC. The highlight of the day was getting to see this girl named Bailey ring the bell for the end of her treatment. Not sure of the diagnosis but I'm guessing Leukemia or Lymphoma. She was another cool bald chick and looked to be in her mid to late teens. There was a big announcement made as Bailey came out to ring the big bell for the end of her treatment. Charlotte walked right up to see the events and even ran up to Bailey and gave her a big hug. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Ok, well, I was bawling!!

Then we waited...and waited...and waited. Finally about 4 (or so) we got back into the clinic again and we met with one of the other oncologists on staff. He finished taking Charlotte's health history and THEN we met with Dr. Wolff again. He helped talk us through the next steps as we discussed possible options.
We learned that there are certain chemotherapy drugs that she may be able to take very soon after surgery (depending, of course, on how the surgery plays out).
We also discussed radiation options (whole head and spine vs. localized and proton beam radiation which is only available at about three places in the country...MD Anderson is one). No decisions made today, of course. All of this depends on how the surgery plays out, how the initial rounds of chemo go, and what the morphogenesis results tell us.

But here is what was made very clear to Roger and to me: Charlotte has a very dangerous, very aggressive tumor that is (frustratingly) not responding to many of the typical therapies. We are embarking on pretty much unexplored territory when it comes to therapy options but this is pretty much all we have. There is much danger of the cancer metastisizing (into her spinal fluid or other areas of the brain) and there is much danger of the cancer continuing to grow.

Slight segueway...there is an episode of the Simpsons where Homer actually tries to gain weight so he can go on disability and work from home. In his attempt to gain weight, he goes on a super fat diet and takes the family along with him. In a scene where Homer tries to get the kids to eat fat-upon-fat, Bart responds "Dad, my heart hurts!" and Homer replies, "Butter your bacon!!!"

Well here we are....my heart hurts. And not from the buttering of the bacon. Over the last few weeks, we keep digging deeper into this process and I continue to realize how grave her conditino is. The fact that her tumor is not dying despite the poison we put in her body. The very fact that we are having to resort to experimental, aggressive, and potentially dangerous medicines to keep her alive. That makes my heart hurt.

I feel this weight in my chest that won't go away and I am genuinely sad. I fought back many tears today (and a few slipped out anyway). I know that there is still hope. I know we are not at the end of the line. But I am not nearly the picture of optimism that I felt about 3 months ago. This is hard stuff and it will take me a while to process this.

Ladies and gentlemen, the eye of the hurricane is getting ready to pass. Get ready for the rest of that oncoming storm. We can't prepare for much because EVERYTHING...every step in the next part of our journey....hangs in the balance of the step that comes before. Her chemo treatment will be determined by how well she responds to the surgery. And radiation will be determined by the success of the surgery and the results of the analysis. And all of the experimental stuff will hinge on how everything else plays out. I can't plan ANYTHING anymore...

So, just to finish the story of the day: we FINALLY left the hospital at about 6:10 PM (after being there since before 9 AM) and the hotel shuttle never came to pick us up (despite 3 telephone calls) so we eventually decided to hoof it the 1/2 mile or so back to the hotel on our own. Not a bad walk and thank goodness for Google maps on our phones.

Just so we don't end on a downer, we did have a lovely evening with Roger's Uncle Tom. We went to dinner for Tex Mex (Roger and I had been craving fish tacos and, yes, Margaritas). Charlotte was a doll and was serenaded by the mariachi band. She really loved it when they played Old McDonald!!

We will leave tomorrow and journey back to Virginia. More to update later.

Rachel