Update on Mom

[Tom]

Hi everyone. I posted this as new so that you would not miss it. When I got home from the hospital, my computer crashed permanently, so I am writing from a neighbor's house. Great timing, heh? The poor neighbor had to sit here watching me sob uncontrollably as I read all of your letters. I wanted to regain my composure enough to respond and let you know what is going on, and thank you all for your help and kind words.

Let me first send out my prayers to Al and Linda. I see that they are really going through the wringer right now. I am thinking about you.

As far as Mom goes, I kind of lost it on the onc, and reminded him that one of his fellow physicians (Mom's surgeon) put her in the spot she is in now because of a failure to properly explore and stage her cancer regarding lymph node biopsy. This mess was completely controllable at that point in time, but the opportunity was sqandered through arrogance. That seemed to strike a note with him. He proceded to order a pelvis, chest, and abdomen CT, which I will be having done around noon today. I also requested a bone scan, and plain films of the hips.

I questioned the PET results because of the failure of any tumor marker increase. I am meeting with another onc on Monday, and we will review the results of all of today's tests, and go from there. I got my second wind after reading al;l of your wonderful responses. I was just shell-shocked yesterday when I got the bad news AND watched them pull Mom's Herceptin at the same time. I know it is a FINANCIAL decision, as I saw it in his eyes. He didn't have the "stuff in his pants" to be honest with me.

I will contact Glaxo Smith Kline as to compassionate use of lapatinib, as I met one of their employees last year while he was receiving radiation therapy for nasopharyngeal cancer. He was a wonderful person to talk with. I will also do my research on what "mild" chemo options you have all mentioned, and appraoch the onc with them on Monday.

Someone asked about ER status. Mom was ER-, PR-, HER+++
She began Herceptin in Juky of last year. Ironically, it seems that the 9 month time to progression is accurate after all. God this all makes me crazy. I swear I will spend the rest of my life trying to convince those in charge of this world to stop all the bull****, and find the cure for this crap. I am sick to death of what it does to patients and their loved ones.

RB, thanks for your post. I have already increased Mom's EPA/DHA many fold. Someone else mentioned Co-Q. I was giving her 100 MG 3X daily, but will up it another 100 MG.

I can't remember what all of the posts said, but I want to than k all of you again from the bottom of my heart for your thoughts and advice. I feel re-energized after reading them all, and will fight this with all that I have left. I will try to check in as often as I can get access to a computer. God Bless you all.
Sincerely,
Tom