Had my 4 week appointment today. Everything looked fine with my CT scans. I am one of only a couple of patients still on the study that I am on. My doctor is hoping that pretty soon here they will let me space my scans further apart. Since my last appointment I have started trying to cut down more and more on the anti-nausea drug that I am taking. Right now I am down to taking a quarter of a pill before I take the veliparib.

I took MJ over to my parents' house while I went in to the Huntsman clinic for my dr's appt.  Everything was clear with my CT scan and lab work.  I asked the doctor if she thinks it is worth it for me to stay on the veliparib drug and she said she definitely thinks it is helping to keep the cancer away - but I can take myself off of the study at any time if I want to.  They are hoping that the drug manufacturers at some point will let us scale back on the CT scans and allow us to space that out more. I asked about the parp inhibitor drug that was just approved by the FDA for cancer treatments and the doctor said that I would not qualify for it (or my insurance company would reject the treatments) because they require that you have to have tried the standard chemotherapy options 3 times before they will pay for the drug.  Also she said that the other drug has to be taken something like 8 times a day.  She thinks that the drug that I am on is a much better version of parp inhibitor.

They tested my vitamin B12 level and it was actually slightly above the normal range - so that is not what is causing my red blood cells to be abnormally shaped.  They think it is just the drug that I am on - although they have not seen that side effect in everyone that is on it.

Got a call from the study coordinator today with some good news - the doctor said it was an early Christmas present for us.  They just got word from the drug company that is conducting the study that I am on and they have finally agreed to pay for some of my CT scans - we should only have to pay for about every 3rd one - which will save us a lot of money.  While I am still not crazy about having to have the scans every 8 weeks, this will help some money-wise at least.

Today I went in for my 4 week appointment for the study drug.  I have been a little nauseous off and on still with this new drug but overall I feel alright.  Today they drew the regular labs as well as the study labs.  When I went into the exam room the nurse said that this is her last week working at Huntsman so she needed to say goodbye and give me a hug.  She has been a great nurse and I have enjoyed working with her.  She is moving on to a new job at Primary Children's Hospital.  She said that it is hard working at Huntsman.

My doctor's team was pleased to see the results from my lab work today.  Apparently they were all really good and sometimes at this point there are some side effects from the drug such as anemia  - which I don't have any signs of.

After I met with the doctor the study coordinator got the new round of medication for me and I was sent on my way home.  I don't have to come back for another 4 weeks.

I took MJ with me this morning to get my additional labs drawn.  I just had her sit on the floor next to me and let her play my ipad while they were drawing the blood.  They took it through my vein this time.

Got a call from the study coordinator who apologized and said that she needed me to come back in because they hadn't drawn all of the labs that were needed for the study...  She apparently had been out sick for a couple of days and completely forgot to inform the lab that I needed the extra study tubes taken as well.  So I will be headed back in tomorrow morning.

For the first round of the study drug, they draw labs at the 2 week mark just to make sure that everything still looks good after being on the drug for 2 weeks.  So I went in in the morning for the lab draw and it was pretty straight forward.

So by the time Thursday rolled around I was feeling really, really sick.  All I could do was lay around on the couch and sleep.  I had no desire to eat anything and had no energy.  I was also having a really hard time getting myself to even want to take the study drug.  By this point I have tried two of the three nausea medications that I was given and neither seemed to do any good other than to make me constipated.  This morning I emailed the study coordinator to let her know what was going on and that I wasn't sure I wanted to continue on the study if it doesn't get better.  The nurse practitioner called me back shortly after that and we talked about some things we could try.  She had me get the last prescription filled and said to take it 30 minutes before I take the veliparib.  She also decided to send me down to the clinic to get some I.V. fluids with anti-nausea medication as well.  My kids were off-track at this time so I was able to leave them home and go over to the satellite clinic.  After some problems with the nurse not quite knowing what she was doing with using my port things went fine and I was able to get the fluids and I felt quite a bit better afterwards.  I also was given a prescription to take at night that is supposed to increase my appetite so I will feel like eating again.

By this point in the week I had skipped out on mutual on Wednesday night and ended up canceling soccer practice on Thursday.  I also was supposed to teach a combined YW lesson on Sunday but found someone to trade with me so I can concentrate on feeling better.  I had been contacted by my relief society president on Thursday morning so I emailed her back and let her know what was going on as well and we decided to have a few meals brought in until I felt better.  So she brought the first meal that night which was a great help.  My poor husband has been going to work and then getting home around 6:15 in the evening with me on the couch, the house a mess and the kids hungry.

Last night I started feeling a little nauseous.  I feel like I need to try and keep something in my stomach at all times or I will start to feel sick.  This morning I went to the grocery store and was feeling alright but not too long after I got home I started feeling sick and ended up throwing up.  After that I felt a little better but then later that evening I didn't feel well at all.  On Monday the doctors gave me 3 different prescriptions to try in case I get nauseous.  So I went and filled the first prescription and tried taking that.  It didn't seem to make much difference.

Started my first doses of Veliparib today.  I went in to meet with the doctor and have some labs drawn. They also did another EEG of my heart (for the study).  I took the first dose after the appointment and so far feel fine.  The most common side effects are nausea and lack of energy.  They said that it side effects usually come within the first few hours of taking the first dose.  I will be taking two pills twice a day.