On Down The Road

Busy day today. Mom, Dad, and I went over to meet with Dr. Aurora and see what he has in store for the next steps in the treatment. Of course, that means chemotherapy.

Dr. Aurora was very clear in setting the expectation for the chemotherapy. He said that the expectation is not to get rid of the cancer, but to keep it "quiet". I believe when things are as advanced as they are with Mom, that is the best strategy that we can go with.

Mom was also very clear with Dr. Aurora that she wants as aggressive a treatment as she can tolerate. Dr. Aurora's view is that we want to strike a very important balance between being aggressive with the treatment and making sure that Mom can continue with treatment. In other words, don't hit her with so much that she gets too sick to continue on, or doesn't want to. I believe everyone is on the same page. Well, as long as it's Mom's page.

His initial desire is to treat Mom with a platinum drug (likely cisplatin) and Alimta. Of course, he has to get Medicare to agree to this course and to fund it. He is confident that he will be able to do that. However, we do have a back up plan that substitutes Taxol for Alimta. Dr. Aurora's experience with Alimta is extensive, and he has a lot of confidence in the drug. Ultimately, it will come down to how well Mom tolerates whatever drug combination they end up using. After the initial four rounds of this combination treatment, Dr. Aurora plans to put Mom on a maintenance program of Alimta alone.

We are planning on getting started on Monday, December 21st. Mom wanted to get going as soon as practical and so we will. She will have the treatment every three weeks, and do four rounds as I mentioned above. During this time, we will have blood counts checked and other tests to keep up with Mom's condition.

Mom is still in good spirits and wants to continue to fight for as long as she is able to do so.

I promised her that is what we would do.

Thanks again to the fine people at ESC Region XI for bringing dinner for my folks tonight. My Dad reports that they both really enjoyed it. You just can't know how much this helps and how much they appreciate it. Thank you.