Dr. Sarah M. Tranney: I would love to hear about your experience where it wasn’t an easy medicine for you. So I think it’s good to understand how people tolerate some of these drugs. This is an antibody-drug conjugate created to limit some of the chemical toxicity. However, in reality, there are side effects of chemotherapy, which include not only the obvious hair loss, but also diarrhea and a drop in blood cell counts. So, could you tell us a little bit about your experience with drug treatment? It’s indescribable.
Valerie Frank: Diarrhea situation associated with sacituzumab. And I had an incredibly, incredibly, incredibly diarrhea-devastating week. None of the medicines given to prevent diarrhea were effective. And her husband could not help me because he was tied up with something, and my 19-year-old daughter had to take me to get an IV drip twice a week. And I tried to keep the kids away from my cancer, I don’t like them having to come to the hospital, the time will come, but it’s not yet. My 19-year-old son took care of me and brought me IV fluids and supplements, but he had diarrhea three times today. I just have terrible diarrhea. This is insane. That’s a lot.
Dr. Sarah M. Tranney: I’ll tell you, I may not have done that and I didn’t promote it myself. This is because, on average, patients tend to have mild intermittent diarrhea. In that case, the following may occur: Use small doses of anti-diarrheal medication if needed. But you know, Valerie’s reaction was very different from how I often see her react when she actually has bad diarrhea. And she said, even though she’s on a lot of antidiarrheal medications and different medications, it’s been a little difficult for her. And as it becomes clear when receiving treatment, everyone’s tolerance to drugs is very different. And I think it’s important to realize that some people get diarrhea and some people get constipation. And for some people, things would happen intermittently. But Valerie really also had pretty bad diarrhea, you know, she’s not like the average person who took this drug. But again, you’ll find that sometimes things need to be managed differently. And that’s a different group of people, and having to come in for hydration, constantly running to the bathroom while taking anti-diarrheal medication, has a huge impact on daily life.
Valerie Frank: I’m getting better at fighting it, I’m getting better at it. Now I get incredibly aggressive when it happens, you know, but I’m always fighting it, I’m always trying to figure out whether it’s under control for now or out of control. It is either becoming or becoming. And a big part of my daily life is like a battle with it and I have three scans today so I think this test will actually find out because I don’t want to reduce the dose. However, I think this test has shown a very positive effect on cancer. Because before I started this test, I had severe bone pain and was using a cane, which caused pain in my legs. I had pain in my lower back. When I painted the skull where the big bones were touching, they all disappeared. So we expect these scans to be great. And I don’t want a reduction in dose. So I’m going to fight a disease that cannot be explained by the word diarrhea, so I have to call it dysentery.