Cancer Across the Pond...con't

Hi Ladies!  Well I have just returned from my third cycle of transarterial chemoembolization in Germany.  After almost no good news in nearly a year, the last two months have felt good.  Last month, before doing cycle #2 they did an MRI and could see shrinkage from cycle #1.  This time they could see continued shrinkage and growth having stopped.  So next month, they will do the final cycle #4, and then two days later they are going to go in and do laser ablation on the largest tumor, and the following month they plan to do ablation on the remaining tumor.  If all goes well, the liver should be clear at that point.  We will do scans at that point to see what else might be going on that needs to be monitored or maintained, and develop a less rigorous schedule of visits moving forward.  Obviously, I can't continue to travel to Germany every month so figuring out what the future is going to look like will be interesting. 

I continue to take things one day at a time, and live each day as well as the Good Lord allows.  I am hesitant to just drop back into the Kaiser system here in the States as they offered me no options except continued high dose chemo.  This cancer is notoriously chemo resistant.  The chemoembolization treatment can be repeated if there should be future liver spots, and the ablation can be done on liver tumors, lung tumors and soft tissue tumors and can also be repeated.  Some combination of working with my German doctors, my naturopath, and perhaps identifying a more natural, holistically focused, clinic here in the US may be my long term plan.  I have discovered that putting all the energy you can in staying as healthy as you can is probably one of your most powerful tools.  So...that's what I try to focus on.   Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to a healthy summer!  Hugs, Helen