Answers and Questions

Mom and I met with Dr. Smith today to learn the effectiveness of the chemo on her cancer. It appears that where the first two rounds decreased the physical presence of the cancerous masses by about half of their original numbers, the last two rounds only affected the cancer marginally. It is akin to looking at a graph where the line moves steeply down hill for the first two rounds and then levels off for the last two.

Dr. Smith said that it appears the cancer in the lymph nodes, lung, and liver have decreased to the amount he normally sees in patients. He noticed from the last CT scan that there were abnormalities in the spinal area (in the bone itself) that he hadn't seen before. This is due to one of two scenarios. Either the cancer was already in the bone, but not visible to CT scans early on, and he is seeing the cancerous lesions or the cancer is growing in the bone. He said that cancer in the bone is no worse than cancer in the liver or lung. Basically, cancer anywhere is not good. There's a no-brainer for you. If cancer is indeed in the bone and growing, radiation can be used to kill it and provide comfort from the pain that would be affecting mom at that time.

Mom has had pain in her back for the last few weeks, but has attributed it to her irritating it when she incorrectly lifted a heavy box a month or so ago. It is hard to know what is going on in the bone so the doctor ordered a Pet Scan and a spinal MRI. This will let him know precisely what is going on so that he can choose the best strategy with which to fight it. Hopefully, it is just the scarred remnants from the cancer that was already present. That would be the best case scenario. The PET Scan is a full body scan that will reveal the locations mom's cancer. The MRI will pinpoint precisely where in the bone structure the cancer is if it is there at all.

Those two tests will be performed in the near future. As I know more exact dates I will post that. Definitely not the best news we could have hoped for, but at the same time it could be far worse. At least her body accepted the chemo and was able to utilize it effectively. This is not always the case with cancer patients.

Mom and I went out to lunch and drove around town for a bit. Time well spent. Beautiful weather as well. She is handling things well (as well as can be expected) and we are taking things one day at a time. Today, for the most part, was a good one.

Pat