Being as it's the last day of the year, I thought I would post a few thoughts here.
2009 was a bit of a strange year for us. It started off great, with Pam and me celebrating a milestone birthday with a fantastic trip to Europe. Both Pam and her "other family" in Spain were thrilled to be reunited after a long time apart and I also really enjoyed seeing Iratxe again and meeting the rest of her lovely family. We had such a great time in Spain and the UK, it was really a dream vacation.
After that, of course, things went a bit sideways (which is of course the reason for this blog in the first place). You can read all about everything that's happened in the previous posts, so there is no need to go through it all again here ;-)
Anyway, we are very glad to have had some good news recently, and we are thankful for how things are going, and that Pam is feeling mostly better. We know that this thing will always be with us, but we also are grateful for the support, good wishes, thoughts and prayers of all of our friends and family (that's you, readers!) All of your positive waves that you have sent our way have really helped us.
Wishing you all the best of health and happiness for the New Year,
Dallas and Pam
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Some Good News!
Today we had some good news, the results from a brain MRI Pam had last week.
The MRI showed that many of the brain lesions have disappeared, and the few that are left have shrunk!
We are really happy about this. Dr. B. has also suggested that Pam start on Tamoxifen so she will be doing that in the next day or so. It is a pill that is intended to help keep the lung tumours from growing, and is well-tolerated by most people.
We also want to say thanks to everyone for your good thoughts as they appear to be working!
Love, P+D
The MRI showed that many of the brain lesions have disappeared, and the few that are left have shrunk!
We are really happy about this. Dr. B. has also suggested that Pam start on Tamoxifen so she will be doing that in the next day or so. It is a pill that is intended to help keep the lung tumours from growing, and is well-tolerated by most people.
We also want to say thanks to everyone for your good thoughts as they appear to be working!
Love, P+D
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
OK, now we get it!
Dallas here...
So we had the appointment with the oncologist, Dr. B., on Monday.
The short version is that the meeting went well and now we understand the reasons why things have been going as they have been.
Basically Dr. B. explained that there are a finite amount of treatment options, and each treatment may only work for a limited time before it stops working. Since the scans have confirmed that Pam's lung cancer has not been advancing and hasn't been causing symptoms, Dr. B. didn't want to "waste" one of these finite treatment options when it isn't really needed. His advise is to keep all therapies in reserve for when the cancer starts to advance.
His analogy was soldiers in a bunker, surrounded by the enemy, with only a limited supply of ammunition and no chance of resupply. The soldiers would be best off saving their ammo for when the enemy attacks. If the enemy is staying behind cover and not attacking, there's no point wasting ammo shooting at them, when that ammo cannot be replaced.
We think this makes a good deal of sense. Dr. B. assured us that if/when the cancer starts to advance he will treat it every way he can. Pam will have regular scans every 8-10 weeks or so to monitor the situation, and more frequently if symptoms present.
If this had been explained to us earlier it would have saved us alot of anxiety about why treatment had not started. However I think we are all on the same page now and we feel quite a bit better about the whole thing. Next brain scan should be later this month.
So we had the appointment with the oncologist, Dr. B., on Monday.
The short version is that the meeting went well and now we understand the reasons why things have been going as they have been.
Basically Dr. B. explained that there are a finite amount of treatment options, and each treatment may only work for a limited time before it stops working. Since the scans have confirmed that Pam's lung cancer has not been advancing and hasn't been causing symptoms, Dr. B. didn't want to "waste" one of these finite treatment options when it isn't really needed. His advise is to keep all therapies in reserve for when the cancer starts to advance.
His analogy was soldiers in a bunker, surrounded by the enemy, with only a limited supply of ammunition and no chance of resupply. The soldiers would be best off saving their ammo for when the enemy attacks. If the enemy is staying behind cover and not attacking, there's no point wasting ammo shooting at them, when that ammo cannot be replaced.
We think this makes a good deal of sense. Dr. B. assured us that if/when the cancer starts to advance he will treat it every way he can. Pam will have regular scans every 8-10 weeks or so to monitor the situation, and more frequently if symptoms present.
If this had been explained to us earlier it would have saved us alot of anxiety about why treatment had not started. However I think we are all on the same page now and we feel quite a bit better about the whole thing. Next brain scan should be later this month.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Micro-update
Dallas here...
Pam had her scans done a week ago last Wednesday and the results were in on Friday.
Basically the abdomen scan was clear and the upper chest scan showed no changes to the lungs, which we will take as being good. Presumably now the doctor will begin some treatment on the lungs, we're expecting an appointment soon for that.
This weekend we met some friends at the Corn Maze. It was fun but sure got cold towards the end of the day! Of course the "petting zoo" component is always great, there's nothing to match fuzzy lambs and kittens for cuteness!
Pam had her scans done a week ago last Wednesday and the results were in on Friday.
Basically the abdomen scan was clear and the upper chest scan showed no changes to the lungs, which we will take as being good. Presumably now the doctor will begin some treatment on the lungs, we're expecting an appointment soon for that.
This weekend we met some friends at the Corn Maze. It was fun but sure got cold towards the end of the day! Of course the "petting zoo" component is always great, there's nothing to match fuzzy lambs and kittens for cuteness!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Progress
I guess our "assertiveness" with the doc last week has brought some results. Pam has a CT scan scheduled for next Wednesday.
We hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving.
Love D. and P.
We hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving.
Love D. and P.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Update?
Saw the oncologist today, "Dr. B."
Had anticipated that treatment of some kind would be starting, that was the indication from the radiation oncologist last week, anyway. Either Tamoxifen or chemotherapy, probably Tamoxifen to start and see how that goes.
That's not quite what happened, though. Basically Dr. B. wants to do another scan of the chest before starting the therapy. He seemed to think that this would happen sometime in December... but when we objected to this timeframe (!) he agreed to have it done sooner, like in the next two weeks it seems. Dr. B. did say that Pam was looking very well though.
We're getting a little frustrated with the process. However we are looking forward to the next scan in a short while and starting a treatment.
Love, P.
Had anticipated that treatment of some kind would be starting, that was the indication from the radiation oncologist last week, anyway. Either Tamoxifen or chemotherapy, probably Tamoxifen to start and see how that goes.
That's not quite what happened, though. Basically Dr. B. wants to do another scan of the chest before starting the therapy. He seemed to think that this would happen sometime in December... but when we objected to this timeframe (!) he agreed to have it done sooner, like in the next two weeks it seems. Dr. B. did say that Pam was looking very well though.
We're getting a little frustrated with the process. However we are looking forward to the next scan in a short while and starting a treatment.
Love, P.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
MRI Results
Just got back from the appointment with the radiation oncologist.
He said that the MRI they just did and the previous CT scan can't be directly compared because an MRI gives much better resolution than the CT. However the MRI showed a number of nodules, but they are all very small. So it seems that they are not getting any bigger anyway. I will have another MRI in mid-November to check again.
In the meantime I will see the general oncologist on Monday, and the doctor today said to expect that he will want to start hormone therapy, or chemotherapy, or both, for my lungs.
All in all it was not so bad. We weren't expecting to get great news, and we didn't get great news, but it could've been worse. We will hang in there.
Love, P.
He said that the MRI they just did and the previous CT scan can't be directly compared because an MRI gives much better resolution than the CT. However the MRI showed a number of nodules, but they are all very small. So it seems that they are not getting any bigger anyway. I will have another MRI in mid-November to check again.
In the meantime I will see the general oncologist on Monday, and the doctor today said to expect that he will want to start hormone therapy, or chemotherapy, or both, for my lungs.
All in all it was not so bad. We weren't expecting to get great news, and we didn't get great news, but it could've been worse. We will hang in there.
Love, P.
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