So last Wednesday I had another MRI and CT scan. On Friday,
now a week ago, we went in to Sloan Kettering for an appointment with the
oncologist and for treatment – knowing that if the scan results were bad then
there might not be any treatment that day, and instead we might have to launch
an intense search for a clinical trial to try to join.
But the results were good! All my tumors are either probably
stable or they are a little smaller than they were. That means the current
chemotherapy regime is working, and since it’s working it can continue
unchanged. When our oncologist told us the news, our day was instantly
transformed, from deeply stressful to quite routine. Off we went for that day’s
chemotherapy (part of which is still making its way to my liver, one milliliter
or so per day, via the internal pump I have).
By the time we got to Sloan Kettering, we’d already begun
looking for available treatments, either standard ones that haven’t yet been
used on me or clinical trials of experimental approaches. Teresa put together a
spreadsheet of about 80 different possibilities. We’re not throwing that away, or
stopping the research. But now we know we’re not in a crisis, so we can look
more deliberately. And we also know that with every month that passes, new
treatment possibilities emerge. So even if my next scan – about two months from
now – is less positive than last week’s, we’ll have more knowledge and likely
more options to work with in our search.
Meanwhile, the main current task is continued attention to
my “bowel regime.” Sigh.
