July 11
PD-L1 is above 50% so he qualifies for KEYTRUDA!
He is also BRAF positive, so if the Keytruda doesn’t work he can try the targeted therapy for BRAF.
Keytruda is administered 30 minutes every three week for as long as the answer to both of these questions is YES. 1. Are you tolerating the treatment? Do you feel ok? and 2. Is the spread stopped or slowed? There will be a CT Scan at 6 and 12 weeks. The first may actually show some inflammation, the second should show a reduction in tumor size.
First infusion, Thursday July 18th. There was a thyroid test first, then the infusion. It was a non event. We went out to lunch afterwards and he ate half a hamburger. He tries to have wine with lunch and dinner, but rarely finishes it and it just doesn’t taste good. The first 3-4 days he hardly notices that he has had a treatment. He eats a little and goes to the office and out to breakfast occasionally with friends.
At day 3 he is very tired and doesn’t know what is wrong, but feels odd.
About day 7-8, Henry became really tired and listless. He was a little nauseated in the mornings. He had some confusion and a little short term memory issues. He has been taking a couple of Advil every day for general malaise. One day he said that everything tasted really salty, complains about everything being salty.
The last two weeks before his next treatment he was tired and hardly ate anything. He would force himself to eat some Cream of Wheat in the morning, a couple of Boosts and Ensures during the day and tea or broth at night. He also had his chest drained again. They took 2 L/5lbs out of his chest. When they do that the lung takes a little while to re-inflate but he really can breathe so much better.