Friday, June 22, 2007
THE REPORT ISN’T A GOOD ONE
We went to the Oncologist doctor Wednesday and received the report we expected. Karon had a bone scan and CT scan done May 31st. She said she didn't need scans to tell her that things are a lot worse. She was right. The tumor marker (or cancer count) had elevated sharply in a comparatively short period of time – from 80 to 127 in three weeks. The tumors in the liver have increased in number and size. There doesn't seem to be much change with the tumors in the lungs although Karon says she's been experiencing some shortness of breath. The cancer is aggressively active again in the bones also.
The doctor had one more suggestion of treatment to try. It is a low dosage of a combination of a couple of different drugs taken by mouth. He says there is about a 5% chance of them having any positive effect. We've decided to give that a try. Karon and I both understood him to say he doesn't have any other treatment suggestions after this.
So the journey continues but for how long we don’t know. As the doctor said, “I don’t know how long. I don’t have a crystal ball.” As Karon puts it, “I don’t have an expiration date stamped on the bottom of my foot.”
We are trying to complete our pre-need funeral arrangements. (See Post June 6th.) We thought we would have it all completed by now. Hopefully we can get that completed in the next week or two. The Dr. discussed the various types of Hospice arrangements that are available and how they work. I haven't checked into how all that works with our particular insurance.
Jim
posted by jim 7:47 AM 0 comments
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