Rasonque

Peggy’s new pancreatic cancer drug, daraxonrasib (brand name Rasonque), was government approved week before last at a cost of $39,800 dollars a month. It works well, although its side-effects—and the side-effects of the drugs she takes to ameliorate its side-effects—keep her from having a normal life. Prior to government approval, we didn’t have to pay for the drug. Now we will, and she has already applied for, and received, a grant to lower the cost.

The real test of a new drug comes after government approval, so we are both hoping that Rasonque will put some people into longterm remission, and that Peggy will be one of them. However, the makers promise is that it will only double the six-month life expectancy offered by chemo. Although half of those who take the new drug will be dead within a year, we are living on the hope that she will go into long term remission. As she sometimes said before getting cancer, “I’m no fool, no sirree, I’m gonna live to a hundred and three.”

Yesterday, Peggy spoke with a friend who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and that conversation evoked memories in us of the nightmarish days following Peggy’s diagnosis. Like Peggy, her friend had thought she was in good health, and she and her husband had even been planning to retake their marriage vows in December and celebrate with an elaborate party. Now, she will spend that month and five other months recovering from a complicated odious surgery for which Peggy was ineligible.

When Peggy went to have her eyes checked for new glasses last week, her eye pressure was so alarmingly high that the optometrist put drops in her eyes to bring it down before she left the office. Three days later, we saw a surgical ophthalmologist who said that Peggy’s constant complaints of nausea and dizziness might be caused by cataracts, so he suggested that she have them removed in October. She has already had two major surgeries this year, one for the removal of her spleen and pancreas, and the other for the removal of a tumor in her hip. On the bright side, cataract removal isn’t major surgery.