Pat yourself on the back! Chemo and work together is a big accomplishment. Hang in there. The rash will go away at some point, at least that is what gets reported.

Hi, Hellion
my husband found that Eucerin's Aquaphor to be very helpful with the Erbitux rash. Also - you might switch to a gentle soap or body wash. Eucerin makes those, too. Anything with the term 'ultra calming' is good. Also, find a nice hat as we head into summer as you don't want sunburn. I have to follow a similar protocol due to my auto-immune issues.
Best wishes and thinking of you!
Maria

I hope the experiments are working, hang in there. I was reading your thread today. I saw a new treatment they are beginning using stem cells for lung cancer and I see you have lung mets. Have you seen the study?

I just found an article, looks like it is just in the UK for now.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/06/lung-cancer-stem-cell-therapy-trial-uk

Hang in there. I hope these studies move quickly

Updates:

The Erbitux chemotherapy is pretty tolerable overall. It doesn't bring a lot of fatigue and the rash has become more manageable as my body has acclimated. It costs a king's ransom, so without insurance I expect I would be in serious trouble.

We did the CT scans of my neck and chest as per the experimental protocol and received good news -- the tumors they are measuring were down about 30-35% with my oncologists split on the effectiveness being down to the Erbitux or the Erbitux + the experiment. I don't really care -- I'm THRILLED to see a reduction.

So what does this mean?

Well, it doesn't really mean anything other than the fact that my tumors have responded, that the response is considered quite good for this early, and that, as a result, we will stay the course. As my experiment oncologist said, this could keep going positively, it could reverse in a year, it could reverse tomorrow -- we never know. As such, I'm taking this for what it's worth today -- good news and we'll see in about a month what the next scan shows. One scan at a time and fingers crossed that things keep moving in the right direction.

Doing chemo (even this "chemo-light" every Friday is pretty annoying but I really can't complain -- things are, overall, going as well as I can expect. There is always the hope that I finally make a saving throw, but even if those odds are ridiculously high, I can at least say that the process has done some good and that I have bought some good time (probably) with side effects I can definitely live with.

As always, my wonderful wife has sat by my side nearly every infusion day and been bored stiff, but always looking after me. I can say I couldn't have done this without her and she is such a big reason I am doing this. I am lucky beyond words.

As always, thank you to my well-wishers and to everyone that is following and fighting their own fights, cancer related or not. I will check in again when I have more news and I hope that news continues to be good!

The Hellion

Thanks for the update Thom. How are you going day to day? What symptoms are you managing and how are you going with them?

Wonderful news!

Your grateful heart will help you through this.

May things keep going in your favor.

Love in OCF,
Kerri

Good news. I'm glad one of other of the drugs is working to shrink the tumours:)

Glad to hear the protocol is going well and that you are doing well. My husband responded quickly to the Erbitux as well. Hoping for the BYL719 to work in synergy with the Erbitux for you!
Maria

Good news is always good news, what a wonderfully supportive wife you have!

Glad the Erbitux is doing its job with minimal side effects.