Oncologist Visit

I got the CT results for my abodomen and it's a bit mixed. The tumors have shrunk, just not as much as he was hoping. Although I had only had 2 rounds of the chemo and a partial 3rd round so it hadn't had much time to work. There were no new tumors other than the one in my head, and that one isn't actually "new", it just wasn't looked for until I complained about it. So he was worried that that one had grown while I was doing treatment. I don't necessarily think it was growing. Who can really say since the first scan of it didn't happen until 1/26/09. The other possibility is that it's location is such that it's not getting a good shot of chemo. Radiation should help with that though.

Anyway, because he's not satisfied with the rate of shrinkage of the other tumors, he wants to add hormone therapy to the treatment. So I will start tomoxifan now and alternate that monthly with megace. From prior reading on the subject, I know that those are typically last line of defense paliative treatments. But I've never heard of giving it at the same time as you're getting chemo. He has never used the words "paliative" with me. That essentially means "making you comfortable for as long as we can" ie... no cures or likely even remissions. You would think he would say so if that were the case. And at the time I am in the office, I was so relieved to hear that the tumors were not "stable", but were at least shrinking and that there was nothing in my lungs or liver, I just wanted to hang onto that little bit of good news.

So chemo will continue and I will be admitted to the hospital on Friday and will spend the night there Friday night. He said I should be released on Saturday morning. Hope insurance covers a hospital stay for chemo.

I had my first zapping this morning as well. That went well. Darcy came in and got a picture of me bolted to the table so I'll post that this evening.