da Chemo doc

Diana, Nancy and I went back to the hospital today, and met with Dr. C (why not?) in the Chemo Department. He was cool -- quiet, knowledgeable, patient and earnest.

The node that had the cancer (non small cell, just like the tumor) was R4, R meaning right side, so staging is now 3B. Aggressive chemo and radiation is the standard of care, but he's recommending a clinical trial. Carboplatin is the standard, and they want to add permetrexed and maybe cetuximab (there are two groups in the study) to see if either or both will improve the success rate, which is currently under 50%.

The treatment consists of 6 weeks of radiation therapy, Monday - Friday, concurrent with 8 chemo sessions, each three weeks apart. Diana gets a fresh CT and PET scan before she starts treatment, and then a CT every 6 weeks during the treatment to assess the size of the tumor.

The radiation people have to sign off on this first, so nothing is confirmed until after the Friday appointment, but our inclination right now is to go with it. Dr. C said that if it were his wife, he'd want her in the study. He also disclosed that his wife also has cancer, and is part of a study that began some years ago.

If we do go with the study, we're not allowed to add any other wrinkles, like the wholistic Doc. We need to make the decision in the next day or two.

We also met with Joan, so that she could look at the incision from the mediastinoscopy. She said that the U does do radio frequency ablation. They've only just started doing them in pulmonology, and that's been with people who are too infirm to undergo surgery.

Diana is scheduled for another CT scan on Friday afternoon before her appointment with the Radiology Department.

She is off of the painkillers as of today, and is feeling better daily except that her hot flashes are back with a vengeance.

The photo is last year's trillium, but that's pretty much what ours look like now...