Just came back from the oncologist - bad news

Hey Eric!
Just signed in tonight (ok, I guess it's morning) and read your post. Bummer... that is NOT the news we want to hear when we go see our oncologists. And after what you have just been through with the surgery and all... sheesh... it's almost as if your oncologist is trying to put you in a depression! Sometimes I wish these oncologists would stop and think before they speak. Oh sure, they are trying to be "realistic" and making sure you know what the "stats" are, hence what your "chances" are. Poppycock!! If we all read/listened/believed in the stats/chances then we all would have been gone long ago!

Let's look at some other things that are going on here.

- Xeloda is going to give you a 20-25% chance of working... which means more like a 40-50% chance. Let's face it... when dealing with percentages, they always tell us the lowest ones to "prepare us" in case they don't work (IE: once you are diagnosed as stage 4, you are given the 2 months - 24 months max prognosis. How many of us have surpassed that 24 months and are still going strong?) Ok, so now you have closer to a 50% chance of the Xeloda kicking in and doing it's job... that means 1 in 2, or out of 100,000 people, 50,000 did really, really well on it. So why not you??

- Attitude. Attitude is half the battle (meds/surgery/chemo/alternative therapies the other half). You've got the attitude that is needed, so don't let no doctor try and destroy that attitude. Use it to the best of your ability so that your attitude supplements the Xeloda.

- Youth/strength. You are not elderly. Not that there aren't healthy elderly folk who are also fighting this battle but let's face it... you have the strength of youth on your side. Don't ever take your youth for granted... it's a powerful tool on it's own.

- Hope. Hey, there's absolutely no need to give up hope at this point. Xeloda is not a cheap chemo. Why do I mention that? Well, if your oncologist and team really had no hope left for you, they wouldn't just throw you on Xeloda because there's nothing to lose.... let's face it, the Pharmaceutical/Insurance industry is all about saving money, not throwing it out the window. If they are putting you on this rather costly chemo, it means that there is still hope there that it will work... so a combination of Xeloda, Youth, and Attitude... there is no reason why you can't hope that this will be the magic pill that is going to work for you!

So hopefully you aren't going to be feeling too badly. I'm on 3300mg Xeloda/day and am feeling fine. The second day of my break week I get the "tireds" but I'm still able to bop around, go shopping, spend 4 afternoons at the theatre office/week and about to start taking in Fringe Festival performances. So I mention this only to show that Xeloda may not be too hard on you as far as side affects go.

Hugggggggs!

Cheryl