A Hug from the Oncologist!

Hi All. Please forgive my lengthy post. Today was my husband's first appointment at the oncologist after his liver resection. She is not normally an extremely "upbeat" person if you know what I mean (very smart, knows her stuff, but not the most positive person in the world, very matter of fact and I usually have to "draw" the positive out of her) so I cautioned my hubby before going to expect that she would really be pushing adjuvant chemo now and talk about reoccurrance rates etc.

Well, this wasn't the case.(much to my surprise). She was also very, very pleased with the results of his surgery and for the first time we actually heard the words NED! And she gave him a big hug! We have some decisions to make regarding follow up chemo. Because my husband was on a clinical trial , (oxal, xeloda and avastin - the combination makes it a clinical trial with the frequency) he has an option of going back on to do what she said would be limited treatments of 3 to 6 more cycles and no more, Or he may just elect to go with the Xeloda alone , or oxal and xeloda, etc. Moreover, she says she is NOT opposed to staying off the chemo and OBSERVING for a while because the results were so good and he's already had 9 treatments pre surgery of what she termed a very highly aggressive treatment plan. It's a bit scary , the thought of no more chemo, but she did say that SOMETIMES you have to weigh the risks of such an aggressive treatment if surgery was successful. I was floored, NEVER expecting her to be so upbeat. We have til Jan 3rd to go back on the trial. He has a ct on the 27th of this month so we are going to want to see those results first anyway before making any decisions. We are hoping for the best, but there's always that little shred of doubt that goes with every scan . You all know how that goes.

She said three of HER patients have "surprised" her in the last 2 years dx stage IV with liver mets, my husband included, and have done extremely well and are NED currently. To me, that three of HERS are now NED is very hopeful for everyone . I live in a small town and three here is not a small number and that they are now NED after being told the odds were not good that they would ever be able to have a resection because of multiple mets, etc. tells me that there are a lot more people out there that are or will become resectable then the onc's might initially think!. So please keep the faith , take one day at a time , and above all, never give up hope. Keeping each and every one of you in my prayers, Remember that miracles can and do happen . God Bless,

Diane