The Roller Coaster Ride Continues

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. We had a lot of wonderful visitors.

I haven’t written in a week due partially to the holiday, but mostly because I’m digesting the most recent discussion with my primary oncologist. We met with him last Wednesday. My interpretation of his message was that 1) he felt that I still had cancer, 2) I was out of options, and 3) he believed the best life for me would be to not continue any more treatment. Basically, go home, give up hope for a cure, and let nature take its course. He called us at home on Thanksgiving morning (about 12 hours after we met with him) and said he rethought our discussion and would like to explore one more chemo option, a drug cocktail of Avastin and Tarceva to be delivered sometime in December. So, I’m mulling this around at the same time I’m exploring a drug currently undergoing clinical trials for Head and Neck and other cancers. Although this drug shows a lot of hope, I don’t qualify for any of the 27 trials currently in progress across 20 countries due to prior treatments. I’m also beginning to explore obtaining this drug through a “compassionate use” program that some drug companies offer. Needless to say, this is confusing and depressing. As I figure this out, I’ll provide a new blog entry.

Nobody ever said that cancer was easy; this past week was a real reminder of how tough it can be. Take care everyone.

P.S. To justme519 (Tanya). Thank you for keeping up with my progress and your best wishes.