"A mixed bag"....That was Dr. F's opening line as he shared my latest scan results with me today. I had a new round of scans completed Monday and saw Dr. F today for the results, now that I have completed three months on this new chemotherapy regimen. The "mixed bag" he referred to goes a little something like this.... Good news:
Not so good news:
This is often the dilemma with metastatic cancer - treatment can be working in one area of the body, but maybe not somewhere else. Another dilemma is that treatment options are not infinite so at what point do you decide the current chemo is not effective and move onto the next...knowing full well that the more options you blow through, the less that remain for the future. Thankfully, I have an extremely experienced, knowledgable, and collaborative team of physicians who I trust wholeheartedly to help guide my decision making. My oncologist and radiation oncologist consulted with each other and with the radiologist who wrote the report on this round of scans. They believe that the scapula metastases might be old. The difficult part of these scans is that bone damage due to active metastatic disease can often present similarly to that of areas where the bone is healing from old mets. They are hoping that I might not be having progression of disease in the bone, but that this chemo might be healing mets that were in the scapula already but weren't detected on the last scan. There is no way to definitively know unless we biopsy the bone. No thank you - been there done that. Not fun. As for the growth of the tumors in the liver, my docs think that it could be due technical error with difference between the current and previous radiologists reports and could even be due to a difference in the amount of contrast during testing. I am not well versed on this, but I am taking it as a positive sign if the growth seems that small that it could be chalked up to something like this. Overall, Dr. F said there there is not enough evidence for him to want to change course of my treatment, especially because I am tolerating it pretty well. So, I will stay on this chemotherapy (6 pills each day- 2 weeks on treatment, 1 week off to let my blood counts rebound) until we re-scan again in 3 months. I will continue with blood work and visits to the oncologist every 3 weeks, as well as an infusion for my bones, and as always, if I am not tolerating treatment or have any change in my symptoms, we will bump up scans right away and forge a new path. I have so much to be grateful for and that will remain my focus. One of the greatest sources of my gratitude is that I haven't had many of the major side effects that others experience on this chemo. The biggest issue I am having is the hand-foot syndrome that I feared from the beginning. My skin has started to take a beating over the last week in particular. It is cracked, peeling, burning and sore. Bag Balm gives me the greatest relief, but it makes it difficult to do much with my hands when they are lathered with this greasy stuff. The good news is that although my feet don't look so great either (and even worse since I took this picture), they aren't painful and sore like my hands are. I continue to stay active, without this affecting my quality of life. If I am being honest, I do wish these scans showed more improvement. But, I am grateful that there is any area of progress at all, and that things don't look worse. I will remain hopeful that continued progress will be seen in 3 more months.
Thank you for all the love and support this week, and always. This is not an easy road and I know I couldn't do it without the support of my friends and family. With love and gratitude always, Meg xoxo
15 Comments
|
AuthorMy blog to keep you all Archives
December 2021
Categories
All
|