Mr. Michael Alan Brockey, 33, of Adamstown, passed away at home on Nov. 18, 2011 after a very courageous battle against cancer. He was the husband of Amy Brockey, whom he married on April 15, 2005.
Born March 10, 1978 in Front Royal, VA, he was the son of Paul, Jr. and Darlene Brockey of Middletown. He graduated from Gov. Thomas Johnson High School in 1996, and co-founded Entropyzero Consulting in 2005. He loved his kids, camping, riding his motorcycle, and dreaming up ideas for new software products.
In addition to his parents and his loving wife, Mike is survived by his three children, Kaige, Ella, and Addison Brockey; his two brothers, Timothy Paul Brockey & wife Annie, and Anthony Paul Brockey, all of Middletown; his grandparents, Paul, Sr. and Barbara Brockey of Cumberland, MD; his grandmother, Flora Mae Wilson of Wiley Ford, WV; his mother-in-law, Joni King of Frederick; his father-in-law, Terry King of Annapolis; his best friend and business partner Steven Buxton & wife Sarah of Broadlands, VA and many nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, and other relatives.
A celebration of Mike’s life will take place on Sunday, November 27, 2011 at ThorpeWood, 12805-A Mink Farm Road Thurmont, MD 21788- 1402 at 3:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Hospice of Frederick County, P.O. Box 1799, Frederick, MD 21702, or to a charity of one’s choice.
me.
PLEASE USE THE DIRECTIONS ON THE WEBSITE (http://www.thorpewood.org), YOUR NAV SYSTEM AND MAP QUEST WILL NOT GET YOU THERE!!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
I am now on Vemurafenib and feeling pretty good
Who knows at this point if this is just another one of those times where I've just had a dip in my health condition and I'm starting to feel better again or if this the new drug providing relief. All I can tell you is that I am feeling much better. There is pain that remains in my leg, but I am happy to say that I am only using the cane about 10% of the time. I am simply starting to feel better.
For those that are not following me on Facebook, I spent last Thursday in Philadelphia receiving my first month's supply of Vemurafenib. They say that this drug works quickly, but after only a day or two, I'm back up and walking on my own again. This drug is fantastic! There are the obvious issues with the drug as we talked about before, but I think at this point we are going to take what we can get.
Anecdotally, this drug causes new pain which is supposedly the process of the tumors breaking down. I can tell you that there is new pain in my body going on right now. Could this be Vemurafenib doing it's thing? I sure hope so ...
Wednesday of last week, Vemurafenib received it's FDA approval. Now they can officially start their clinical trials which are combining both Vemurafenib with Ipilimumab. Thought being that the combination of drugs could provide the knock out punch. Dr Lynn Schuchter, who is the oncologist overseeing my Vemurafenib treatment is one of the main researchers who started this clinical trial. As you can imagine, she was ear to ear with excitement when she found out that I am basically her first clinical patient as I've already taken the combination. Hopefully we can provide her with some great study information prior to her actually starting her new trial.
I'm not quite sure yet what the timeline is for scans and reports etc. I do know I'll be in Philadelphia again next month to get another round of pills. I'll get more information then. This last time, I think I was more anxious just to get my hands on the drugs.
I'm feeling good now. Taking it easy on the work front again, basically working from home. I plan to show my face from time to time, especially as I start to get even better. I'm just trying to take things slow and not get ahead of myself.
For those that are not following me on Facebook, I spent last Thursday in Philadelphia receiving my first month's supply of Vemurafenib. They say that this drug works quickly, but after only a day or two, I'm back up and walking on my own again. This drug is fantastic! There are the obvious issues with the drug as we talked about before, but I think at this point we are going to take what we can get.
Anecdotally, this drug causes new pain which is supposedly the process of the tumors breaking down. I can tell you that there is new pain in my body going on right now. Could this be Vemurafenib doing it's thing? I sure hope so ...
Wednesday of last week, Vemurafenib received it's FDA approval. Now they can officially start their clinical trials which are combining both Vemurafenib with Ipilimumab. Thought being that the combination of drugs could provide the knock out punch. Dr Lynn Schuchter, who is the oncologist overseeing my Vemurafenib treatment is one of the main researchers who started this clinical trial. As you can imagine, she was ear to ear with excitement when she found out that I am basically her first clinical patient as I've already taken the combination. Hopefully we can provide her with some great study information prior to her actually starting her new trial.
I'm not quite sure yet what the timeline is for scans and reports etc. I do know I'll be in Philadelphia again next month to get another round of pills. I'll get more information then. This last time, I think I was more anxious just to get my hands on the drugs.
I'm feeling good now. Taking it easy on the work front again, basically working from home. I plan to show my face from time to time, especially as I start to get even better. I'm just trying to take things slow and not get ahead of myself.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Preparing for Vemurafenib to Wipe Out my Melanoma and my Pain
I just received my sixth and what should be my final dose of Yervoy. Let me take a step back and tell you what I've been up to. I met with Dr Lynn Schuchter in Philadelphia about two weeks ago which turned out to be very informative. Dr Schuchter works at UPENN and is the study coordinator for Plexxikon's Vemurafenib, or PLX4032 as I used to reference it on this blog. She has been working with Melanoma patients for many years, and is probably one of the leading and most recognized names in Melanoma research in the world.
As it turns out, Dr Schuchter was extremely pleased with my Yervoy pretreatment and has been timing our plan in a way that I was still able to receive this final dose before switching over to Vemurafenib.
Much like how I had been granted access to Yervoy, Vemurafenib is now in a phase 4 open access compassionate use trial setting. This means that I nor my insurance company will be paying for it, but it also means that I have to qualify for this new trial. There are three things that are happening now as prerequisite to my trial admission. I am scheduled to receive a brain MRI this morning and chest CT next week. Also my melanoma block was transferred from Frederick Memorial Hospital to Plexxikon so that they can re-run the BRAF studies to ensure that I am in fact a match for their drug.
One reason that I've been dragging my feet with this drug is that you hear so many times the story of great success and regression followed by a period of relapse and even more aggressive tumor growth. This still scares me. What is different now is that while the relapse might still occur when new "pathways" open up and trigger the cancer to start rapidly multiplying once again -- there are now other drugs in the pipeline that are beginning to target these other pathways. This remission period has been know to be anywhee from 3 to 13 months on average. There are some subjects who have been in complete remission for well over two years and are still going strong.
When you combine the the fact that my tumors have always been of the slow growing type, I've managed to change my entire life style and eating habits, I've now been pretreated with six doses of Yervoy which has trained my body to look for and fight Melanoma -- I actually like my odds moving into this round of drug treatment. The side effects are low, the promise of releif is huge -- it's all about the duration. If I could get another 13 months (or more) of pain free living -- I'm game.
As it turns out, Dr Schuchter was extremely pleased with my Yervoy pretreatment and has been timing our plan in a way that I was still able to receive this final dose before switching over to Vemurafenib.
Much like how I had been granted access to Yervoy, Vemurafenib is now in a phase 4 open access compassionate use trial setting. This means that I nor my insurance company will be paying for it, but it also means that I have to qualify for this new trial. There are three things that are happening now as prerequisite to my trial admission. I am scheduled to receive a brain MRI this morning and chest CT next week. Also my melanoma block was transferred from Frederick Memorial Hospital to Plexxikon so that they can re-run the BRAF studies to ensure that I am in fact a match for their drug.
One reason that I've been dragging my feet with this drug is that you hear so many times the story of great success and regression followed by a period of relapse and even more aggressive tumor growth. This still scares me. What is different now is that while the relapse might still occur when new "pathways" open up and trigger the cancer to start rapidly multiplying once again -- there are now other drugs in the pipeline that are beginning to target these other pathways. This remission period has been know to be anywhee from 3 to 13 months on average. There are some subjects who have been in complete remission for well over two years and are still going strong.
When you combine the the fact that my tumors have always been of the slow growing type, I've managed to change my entire life style and eating habits, I've now been pretreated with six doses of Yervoy which has trained my body to look for and fight Melanoma -- I actually like my odds moving into this round of drug treatment. The side effects are low, the promise of releif is huge -- it's all about the duration. If I could get another 13 months (or more) of pain free living -- I'm game.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Radiation treatment is complete. But what about BRAF?
For those of you who have friended me and have been following me on Facebook, you know that I've been back to see the radiation oncologist and decided to receive another round of treatment. This time I was treated with CyberKnife technology which is a lot more accurate and allows us to hit a more defined area of cancer with even more radiation. I will likely receive more intense side effects than before, but the treatment area is smaller so the long term effect would be minimized.
This morning, I finished my second and final CyberKnife treatment for this round. Now we wait and see what happens. I'll go back and get another CT on August 25 to see the status of the melanoma in my leg.
I also just this morning received a call from Dr Spira, who indicated that I do in fact have the BRAF mutation! The number seems to change based on who you speak with, but considering that only 20 - 30% of melanoma patients have this mutation, I am quite lucky to be one of those.
This news of course opens up new opportunities for me on the treatment front. The recently named Vemurafenib from Plexxikon, formerly known as PLX4032, has been making headlines of late showing amazing durable remissions in treated patients. You may remember my TV interview when Vemurafenib made it's media break through. I'm pretty excited about finally being eligible.
There of course some caveats. Dr Spira believes that I will "get more mileage" from the BRAF drug over my current Ipilimumab treatment. There are rules that prevent one from being on both drugs, so once we find a program to have me enrolled, I will stop receiving Ipilimumab, possibly for good.
So far the closest treatment facility appears to be in Philadelphia. What's nice about this drug is that it is a pill. I will have a vial of pills, and I'll simply take two pills a day. Forever.
For many who have been on the drug there is a window of time where the drug remains active. Because cancer doesn't play by any given rules, it is also well known to stop responding to this treatment where the cancer then comes back, usually more aggressive. Worse yet, if this happens we are at the end of treatment options. That's it. That's all we have.
There are documented cases where patients who have been receiving this drug and have shown continued durable complete responses for well over two years. All we can do is hope that I can be part of that group.
This morning, I finished my second and final CyberKnife treatment for this round. Now we wait and see what happens. I'll go back and get another CT on August 25 to see the status of the melanoma in my leg.
I also just this morning received a call from Dr Spira, who indicated that I do in fact have the BRAF mutation! The number seems to change based on who you speak with, but considering that only 20 - 30% of melanoma patients have this mutation, I am quite lucky to be one of those.
This news of course opens up new opportunities for me on the treatment front. The recently named Vemurafenib from Plexxikon, formerly known as PLX4032, has been making headlines of late showing amazing durable remissions in treated patients. You may remember my TV interview when Vemurafenib made it's media break through. I'm pretty excited about finally being eligible.
There of course some caveats. Dr Spira believes that I will "get more mileage" from the BRAF drug over my current Ipilimumab treatment. There are rules that prevent one from being on both drugs, so once we find a program to have me enrolled, I will stop receiving Ipilimumab, possibly for good.
So far the closest treatment facility appears to be in Philadelphia. What's nice about this drug is that it is a pill. I will have a vial of pills, and I'll simply take two pills a day. Forever.
For many who have been on the drug there is a window of time where the drug remains active. Because cancer doesn't play by any given rules, it is also well known to stop responding to this treatment where the cancer then comes back, usually more aggressive. Worse yet, if this happens we are at the end of treatment options. That's it. That's all we have.
There are documented cases where patients who have been receiving this drug and have shown continued durable complete responses for well over two years. All we can do is hope that I can be part of that group.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Latest PET Result Indicates Progression
I know that it's been a couple of months since I've last posted. I had just received the results that indicated my treatment plan was working. I was basically living with a clear head and not scared about my melanoma, after all it was the cancer, not me that was dying. -- I know that I've worried some of you by not posting but, after two years of living with stage IV melanoma, it was nice to have a period of time where I could live a little and spend some real time with my family while not worrying about cancer.
That time has once again ended. My latest scan results shows that the cancer that was dying out in my last scan has returned and is active once again. This progression qualifies me for another round of Ipilimumab (Yervoy).
Over the past few weeks, I had the same skin irritations and flare ups as I did during my first treatment phase which indicated that the drug was working. Because of this I had high hopes heading into this PET scan. At the same time, I had new pains as well as my leg pain had started to get worse which were all signs leading towards progression. I suppose I was in denial, which is probably why I was a little lackadaisical in getting the scan scheduled in the first place.
June 3rd -- I'll go back in and discuss further treatment options. I believe I'll start the re-induction phase of Ipilimumab. We also talked about it being time to get a biopsy of a live tumor to see if I have the BRAF mutation which would make me eligible for another trial drug that has had some real success recently.
That time has once again ended. My latest scan results shows that the cancer that was dying out in my last scan has returned and is active once again. This progression qualifies me for another round of Ipilimumab (Yervoy).
Over the past few weeks, I had the same skin irritations and flare ups as I did during my first treatment phase which indicated that the drug was working. Because of this I had high hopes heading into this PET scan. At the same time, I had new pains as well as my leg pain had started to get worse which were all signs leading towards progression. I suppose I was in denial, which is probably why I was a little lackadaisical in getting the scan scheduled in the first place.
June 3rd -- I'll go back in and discuss further treatment options. I believe I'll start the re-induction phase of Ipilimumab. We also talked about it being time to get a biopsy of a live tumor to see if I have the BRAF mutation which would make me eligible for another trial drug that has had some real success recently.
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