Double blind

Tuesday 27 March

Lara is due at Saint Luke tomorrow morning, Wednesday, at 9:00AM. She is to undergo chemotherapy with Cytarabine and takes part in a double blind test for a new agent called Vosaroxin. Three treatments are scheduled like last year, and normally she would enjoy home leave in between them. 

Cytarabine (aka Cytosar and Arocytine) is an old faithful. Lara received it through all three treatments last year. Vosaroxin is a new compound presently being tested by a company called Sunesis Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco in the form of a double blind procedure. She has only 50% chance of getting the real compound instead of a placebo. In other words, Lara and her treating physician don't know which. That formula is to be followed through all three treatments.

Cytarabine is administered in the from of a drip bag at a rate of 1 gram per square meter of body surface (an odd way of calculating, come to think of it). She will get that for five days. On day one and day four she will also receive injections of either Vosaroxin or a placebo. More on these compounds can be easily Googled for the need-to-know among you.

Lara has been seeing a specialist on nutrition, an Israeli doctor called Tcachor, here in Brussels. Yesterday we went to see her, after she had studied an elaborate blood test taken several weeks ago. It turns out that Lara is super vitamin D deficient (Jeffrey was right in suggesting she probably would be!) and is now receiving highly concentrated doses which will help her deal with the chemo better. In addition she is receiving other supplements, including anti-oxidants and Omega 3, while at the same time she has to follow specific dietary advice (to the extent possible in a hospital) in order to enhance deficiencies in other minerals etc. Meanwhile, we have also established a link with Professor Frederik Schroyens, the number one in classic homeopathy here in Belgium, working from Ghent. Lara will see him in four weeks time, during her first home leave. And finally, Lara is going in this afternoon for one last session with her acupuncturist. So you see, we are taking this from different angles.

One of her first stops after registration will be to have the central line installed, a surgical procedure by which an intravenous needle is embedded in her chest. In Lara's case these procedures have been cumbersome and painful; so looking forward to one, she is not.

This morning Lara came with me while I had my regular bicycle thallium test at a different hospital (Sainte Anne in Anderlecht). It worked out allright. I have to go back on Monday for two different kind of heart scans, while resting. We had a lovely breakfast together at Pain Cotidien, to celebrate and enjoy our freedom together one last time. Tomorrow she has to arrive a jeune.

We try to keep our moods at an even keel, but with some difficulty, I have to say. Don't let the casual tone in Lara's voice during phone conversations fool you for a minute. We are both a bit daunted and overwhelmed. How could we not be?

Light those candles and keep them burning.