While speaking with the doctor in Boston he said something that caught my attention. He explained chemo like it was a “bomb” and its used to kill anything and everything inside of you to kill the cancer. I have never heard anyone explain it like that before. It made it seem like the healthy parts of my body were being destroyed in the process but i guess thats true. They have to almost kill you to save your life. But this is all different then the chemo i’m on now. The chemo i am on now it a targeted therapy and is not doing as much damage to my healthy cells as traditional chemotherapy, which is probably why I wasn’t feeling the same effects as the last time I had chemo.
Its been a rough couple weeks since i got this cold and fever but things are starting to look better. My fever has gone down a lot and my energy levels are improving. I just cant wait to wake up one day and feel completely healthy. I know it was only 4 weeks ago i was feeling great but it feels like a lifetime ago.
Thank you everyone for all your love <3
Carley
Hello Carley
In addition to our heartfelt prayers you may find it reassuring that high levels of basic research are being invested into the study of chemotherapy and its use as anti-tumor therapy. One of those studies that I was involved with, published in Nature Communications, was based on results obtained from murine experiments where we proved that there are built-in physiological mechanisms to package or envelope chemo toxic drugs so as to protect healthy cells on the way while the drug is being delivered to the targeted tumors. We found that the undesirable side-effects in chemotherapy were the result of the over-flow or excesses of the drug that exceeded the ability to package and deliver the anti-tumor toxins safely to the tumors, leaving the toxins to damage healthy cells instead of the tumors they are intended for. Once the dosage was matched with the ability to package them, we found that tumors in mice could be safely killed without any side-effects whatsoever for the mice. Although it would be unwise of me to raise any immediate hopes of such measures being available for human patients, however much I would love to do so for someone as close as you are to me, it hopefully will give you some confidence, amidst all the negative and apparent hopelessness that we face in battling cancers, that progress is being made and will lead to new insights and vistas. In the meanwhile dearest Carley you must like all soldiers in a battle that seemingly is set against them fight and fight on till help arrives. You can see the Abstract for our published results at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n12/full/ncomms2282.html
My ardent prayers and best wishes for you and for your parents are with you all at these hard times. You, my dear, have been and are a brave and shining example to all of us, doctors and patients alike.
Foad Katirai M.D. DPhil (Oxon)
we are all sending love , positive thoughts and energy your way and wishing that tomorrow will be a better day for you
Carley you are amazing and we are felling this with you every second of the day with you. Love the Di Paola family. You will Crush this !!
Sending strong will and determination your way always! It’s like the song sais, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
SO hoping that the improvement continues and that day comes really really soon.