Can you stand a little good news?

Mom had a PET/CT Scan and MRI this past Monday.  The past two days we have met with the oncologists to get the results of the scans and to find out what is next.  So here it is, news that we have been waiting on.

The MRI showed that the one tumor mom had in the lower left lobe of her brain is all but gone.  Pretty much just an air pocket left where the tumor used to be.  There was a small trace of cancer cells left there, but nothing to worry about at this point.  The PET/CT showed significant decrease in the tumors on her liver with a complete/near complete disappearance of the tumors in her lung and left first rib.  There is no new growths in her body at this time.  There is a small amount of cancer on her scalp at the edges of the site where her primary removed a tumor. Needless to say, this status is wonderful news!  So what does this mean?

She is going to have a break from Chemotherapy for at least 2 months.  This decision was made for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, to give her body a break from the poison.  We are also going to see if some time off from chemo is going to lessen the neuropathy (tingling in her fingers and toes) as this one side effect is going to be a deciding factor for further treatment.  In the meantime, mom will have 10 radiation treatments to the lesion on her scalp to kill off the cancer cells there and hopefully  let it heal properly and avoid surgery (and plastic surgery) on it to take care of that problem.  We really want to go that route because it means she can continue to wear her wig, whereas with surgery she would have at least 10 days without the wig on.

A month from now she will have an appointment with the chemo oncologist to see how she is doing physically/generally and two months from now she will have another round of scans to see if there is any new growth of the tumors.  If there is no new growths then she will start maintenance chemo to keep the tumors at bay for as long as possible.  The drugs used for that will be determined by how she is doing with the neuropathy.

It is expected that we are still in palliative mode and not curative mode as it is unlikely the cancer will respond so dramatically as to put her into remission.  However, the chemo so far appears to have bought us time.  How long it has bought is unclear and frankly cannot be determined or predicted.  What is clear is that at some point, chemo will no longer work as the cancer cells mutate and become increasingly resistant to the drugs.  As surgery is not an option for mom, when that point comes, it will be a matter of time before the cancer gets the best of her.  Hopefully that is a long way off yet.

Physically she is doing well and her blood work suggest things are within acceptable tolerances to suggest that we are not in any immediate dangers.  It is likely that she will need to continue pain medication and the low-fat diet, but hopefully she will be able to put on some weight during the break.  She was up two pounds from the last doctor visit!  The major issue currently is the peripheral neuropathy, which is getting to a point that is almost unbearable.  Mom has developed this funny sort of walk because she can’t really feel her feet anymore beyond the tingling.  She describes it as walking on rocks.  So she tends to ‘slap’ her feet to the ground so that she can tell where her feet are without looking at them.  By far the most troubling part of the neuropathy though is her inability to do things with her hands.  Mom is a crafting type of person.  She can no longer cross-stitch or crochet or do many of the things we take for granted like picking something up.  She is constantly dropping things because she cannot tell if she has a firm grip on items.  Turning paper is a chore and her handwriting has changed because of the tingling in her fingers.  If there was one thing that would keep her from continuing with chemo it is the neuropathy.  Unfortunately the doctor expects that any improvement in that side effect will be slow to appear because nerves heal so slowly.  The nerve damage from the Taxol may not be reversible at this point.  The break from chemo will give us some indication.  Unfortunately none of the drugs commonly used to treat neuropathy have worked and if you have followed this blog, you will remember the disaster that we had with Lyrica.

So the next couple months (after the 10 radiation treatments) should be relatively doctor free and allow us to branch out a little in terms of doing fun things.  Mom and I are already looking at the calendar and planning out some things like a trip to Laughlin to get away and visit Larry and Diana.  Mom also wants to make a trip up to Jodi’s place and to Karina’s home.  After the fair is over, I will be so ready to vacation and relax.

Of course the big regret is that dad isn’t here to share the good news.  Mom has been going through various  emotions the past week or two regarding dad.  Yesterday she was having some anxiety issues because she really wanted dad here and when she went to listen to the last voicemail he had sent… well it was gone.  Voicemails are automatically deleted after a period of time if you do not keep resaving them.  She let too long pass and it is gone.  It really upset her that she could not hear his voice anymore, even if it was his sad voice.  I have my own feelings about dad at this point, but I will save those for another post.