Preliminary Update on SIR sphere treatment

Hi All,

I just got back from my month-long trip to Europe to visit my family and go on a cruise with my Mum and brother - can't particularly recommend sailing out of Southampton across the Bay of Biscay in December, but hey, I had some great anti-nausea meds!

My December CT scan was two weeks earlier than they would normally have scheduled, but it did show a ring of what they are presuming is "dead stuff" around the three biggest liver tumors, so it looks like the treatment was working, yay!  Unfortunately, it also showed two new lesions in two different vertebrae and my lymph node tumor had grown.  Still, they are not the ones threatening my life immediately, it was the liver tumors that were going to take me out by the end of the year or so, so I am delighted that they are finally on the run.  I am still having some pain, which has got worse over the last month, on my right side, just under my ribs, so I suspect there is something else going on, or maybe that tumor "broke through" the death ring around it and is still growing.  I think I mentioned that it was found that I had three right side hepatic arteries instead of the normal one, so there is always the possibility that the third tumor (smallest at the time, but still golf ball sized) had created another blood supply that they didn't spot.

I am heading back to Houston for another scan on 1/11, which should give a more definitive picture.  I am also meeting with Dr Eng the next day when she will recommend treatment, presumably chemo, for the rest of the nodules.  My local CA doc has already said that he wants to start me on Vectibix as soon as possible, but I think I'll wait and see what Dr Eng says.

I was a total wreck when I got to England, between the travel, the time change and general fatigue, but I started to perk up after a week or so, which really pleased my Mum and I was feeling pretty normal, other than rib pains and general weakness by the time I left.  Today, I am trying to recover again from jet lag and the 11 hour flight on an ice-box known as Virgin Atlantic.  The HVAC system went haywire about an hour out and we all froze the rest of the way.  I had on a turtleneck, heavy pure wool sweater, down jacket and three VA blankets and it was just enough to stop me from shivering but I was still so miserable for 10 hours straight - and today I've got a sore throat and am coughing - just what I need.

Anyway, it looks like the SIR sphere treatment was successful, I'll know more in 10 days.  It would be nice for the oncologists to have another treatment option.  If the only mets are in the liver, it might even turn out to be a life-saver, literally.

Carol