Thursday, November 6, 2008

So many paths...

It seems like we cant stay in one place too long, the we get stagnant and have to move along. I don't understand why, is it just us, do all cancer patients do this, I don't get it. Tami has been wanting to try other options for some time, all through this we have gotten told that Chemo is the way, nothing else at this time, maybe in the future something else. The future keeps coming and going and here we are, trying another Chemo and being told the more Chemos we do the less likely they will be effective.

So I am a logical thinker, and Tami is my perfect match and is an emotional thinker. I have to understand the problem, I have to understand the solution and when something is beyond my knowledge or skillset I defer to the "experts". As time gos along, and I start to understand the problem, my logical brain starts chewing on things. I look at Tami currently, and I think about her problem. She has Tumors in her liver, which were determined to be inoperable, she has a couple small spots in her omentum, these could be operable, as well there is other treatments for the omentum.

What will get her, out of the omentum "gut sack" and her liver, which do you think will get her if not addressed? Of course the liver will, now the current Chemo is supposed to be targeting both. Of course it is very debatable at how well it is doing, and more so how well this new chemo will do. There is a treatment call Y90, tiny radioactive beads flushed thru the liver (I am way over simplifying of course) that attack tumors in the liver, a proven performer (our current Oncologist has been involved in studies and papers with this treatment *shrug*). So my logical mind says, attack the liver, and treat the omentum afterwards. Ok, so there is a possibility the cancer in her omentum will rage out of control and all will be for not. But the problem with siting back is that it has only got us more cancer and any head way we have made is gone, again. 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

So here we are, headed into overtime. If we win, we get 2 points, if we lose end up with 1 point, and if we stay tied, both us and cancer get a point. I think its time to go on the offensive, play for the win, the tie gets us no where and a loss, well we are at risk of loss since August of last year.

I had a doctor tell me this today in an email when I asked about the possibility of doing Y90 treatment to the liver even though there was cancer in her omentum as well:

"Yes nearly all neuroendocrine patients have disease outside the liver but the liver is the critical organ that needs to be kept as tumor-free as possible."

I cant tell you you how nice it was to hear a doctor say what I have been thinking but held back because I wanted to believe we only needed to be with on doctor. Does this mean he is right and our doctor is wrong? Of course not, if I have learned anything thru all this is that there is so many different opinions and paths to take when treating this disease. There are more aggressive paths, there are safer paths, which path would you take? I cant answer this for Tami, I can tell you that she isn't one to lay down and take anything. Oh you might here her down and out, and she might sound ready to throw in the towel, but then when you start to turn away, she will sucker punch you and show you there is still a lot of fight left (this coming from one that has taken that sucker punch a few times, and I mean that not in a physical way.... well mostly :) ).


Y90, its being used on the liver currently in the US, in Europe they are using it as a systemic treatment. A treatment developed in the US, being used to its fullest outside the US, all I have to say on that is W.T.F.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am all for logical -- your deduction seems perfect to me. I'd make any doctor who disagrees with your logic a chance to counter it, but use your own brain, the logical one, to make a final decision. This is the most helpful thing you could do for Tami -- in her state of mind (pain, depression, etc.) there is a heightened chance that her decision will stem from the wrong reason.

I hope she sees your logic and follows it. Good luck.