More time for Melissa

Another update: After the news that the Cetuximab had stopped working Melissa had her 15th CT scan in 2.5 years. The CT results were good, in that the tumours had clearly shrunk since her CT in January and there has been no further spread. This means the Cetuximab definitely worked and Melissa is in better shape now than she was 3.5 months ago.

That said, Melissa and her family discussed the remaining options with her Oncologist and have opted for no further treatment. The best she can hope for now is a few months of respite before new symptoms start appearing. Her life expectancy is now in the order of 6-9 months.

Thanks again to everyone who has donated via this Givealittle site. Enough money was raised to cover the entire cost of Melissa’s Cetuximab treatment. As she will not be pursuing other non-funded treatments she is no longer seeking donations.

Update: Oh how quickly things can change. After my last update where I reported that Melissa’s CEA was still trending nicely downwards, she had two further decreases (52.5 after 7 doses and 51.9 after 8 doses), but given how small the decreases were they thought they were probably seeing the start of a plateau. A week later Melissa experienced her first increase since being on Cetuximab (53.7) and a week after that big jump to 78.3. The doctors have decided there is no longer sufficient evidence to continue with Cetuximab as it is no longer working.

Melissa and her family now have a difficult decision ahead as there are only two remaining options. They can decide to try another expensive drug (Avastin) in combination with a chemo drug that she has had before (Irinotecan), accepting that the odds of it working are only in the order of about 10% and dealing with a new range of side effects (and revisiting some old ones such as hair loss and neutropenia) or they can decide enough is enough and try to enjoy the time she has left without the endless hospital appointments and side effects. Should she decide to proceed with Avastin any money left over from this Givealittle fundraiser will be put towards that.

Quick update: Thanks to your generosity, Melissa has been on Cetuximab for a month now and it is going unbelievably well! Her CEA is not just holding steady (which is what we'd hoped for) - it's actually dropping, and dropping fast! Melissa's oncologist says he's never seen results this good before. And just as important, Melissa is feeling fantastic and has even started going to the gym for the first time since diagnosis!

BUT the treatment still costs $10,000 per month, so donations are needed as much as ever.

Thank you again for your support; it is making the world of difference for this young family.

****************************************************************

Melissa, Bryan, and their children Zach (7) and Paige (5) are a typical Kiwi family. They live in Kelson, up in the Western Hills of Lower Hutt, and have a supportive family and many friends, both within the community where they live and throughout the South Island where both are from originally.

In 2012, at the age of 33, Melissa was diagnosed with Stage 3 bowel cancer. She underwent six weeks of daily radiotherapy and then had major bowel surgery to remove the primary tumour. Sadly during the surgery it was discovered that the cancer had spread to her liver and was therefore now classed as Grade 4 - terminal.

Melissa was told that she probably had about two years to live. This was just over two years ago.

Since then she has undergone 21 rounds of chemotherapy and had multiple hospital admissions due to chemo complications. Chemo was finally stopped in July 2014 as Melissa's cancer had become resistant to the treatment. This meant the end of the publicly funded treatment available in New Zealand.

In September 2014, Melissa chose to undergo SIRT (Selective Internal Radiation Therapy) at a cost of $35,000 which she and Bryan paid for themselves. Unfortunately it wasn't as effective as they'd hoped it would be and the tumours began to grow back within a couple of months.

Melissa has blogged about her treatment here: http://just-another-cancer-blog.blogspot.co.nz

Now Melissa has one last treatment option to give her more time to spend with her young family. It's a non-funded drug called Cetuximab which, if effective, could give the Fields a few more months together. Unfortunately Cetuximab comes at a cost of $10,000 per month and requires a weekly round trip from Wellington to Palmerston North.

This is just too much of a financial stretch for the Fields, and for the very first time since Melissa's diagnosis they're hoping to get some help. It really goes against the grain for them to ask (they're usually the ones giving to everyone else's causes!), so I've set this page up on their behalf.

Please help give the Fields a bit more time together. Every little bit helps.