Before I start writing anything more, I want to tell you that my hemoglobin count (iron) went up this week from 2 weeks ago! The normal range for hemoglobin is 10-12; my count went up from 9.3 to 9.7. This still puts me on the low end of normal, but it is a move in the right direction! Thank you to those of you have been praying about this and/or have made food suggestions! It is definitely a praise issue, and I apologize that I forgot to mention it in the earlier posting.
The real reason for my post today.... I've been thinking about my doctor's suggestion for the drug carboplatin, and I've decided that I don't need to do much research about this. It is a good recommendation. For several reasons.
Understandably, I have been praying about a right treatment decision from my oncologist. I have a sense that God really answered that prayer yesterday. First (and I admit, subjectively), my oncologist's demeanor about a treatment decision has really changed. For several weeks he's gone back and forth with options, and has been open that he is not sure what is best. Yesterday he was confident and direct. He said with no hesitation, "I've made my decision, and it's carbo." He said it in a way that implied the final decision is still mine, but clearly this is his recommendation.
Later in the conversation, he indirectly explained why.... Cancer has a language all its own. In chat rooms, women talk about mets (short for metastasis, or the spread of cancer within the body) or about NED, No Evidence of Disease.
Within the clinical setting, researchers use terms like DFS (Disease Free Survival) and OS (Overall Survival). One that took me a while to figure out is pCR, which means "pathological complete response." This describes a tumor that completely shrinks, literally melts completely away, because of the effects of chemo.
Three weeks ago, my oncologist finished treating a triple negative patient with the drugs he used on me in 2006 (TAC) and the carboplatin at the same time -- she has a pCR. A complete response to the chemo. Her tumor went completely away! This is "shout from the roof-top" type of news!
I believe my doctor saw the success of this drug for her, and has decided that it can have benefit for me as well. Each person is different -- her tumor may have been smaller than mine?; and she is BRAC1 positive wherease I am negative for this breast cancer gene -- but any measure of success in one person is hope for success in another!
Also, carboplatin is one of the drugs Kathy Miller suggested for me if I were to continue chemo. It just seems that many things point to this drug as being a reasonable choice.
Carbo has a "sister drug" (cisplatin) that my doctor told Paul about in July, and said then that he would chose cisplatin. Now my doctor has completely changed his opinion, and this has Paul understandably concerned. We asked the doctor about this yesterday. He said that carboplatin (the drug he is recommending now) is much more easily tolerated than the other. And he has seen the carboplatin work on his own patient -- no doubt, that is affecting his recommendation.
So nothing has been 100% decided, but I am warming up to the idea of carboplatin. It seems like a reasonable choice, and will hopefully be the last chemo I'll ever need to consider. That is a big wish, but God is big enough. I just keep telling myself that!
1 comment:
Glad your hemoglobin is going in the right direction: up!
It sounds like you're really listening to God and how He may be speaking through your dr. Isn't God cool?!
It's also neat how you're learning the "language" of cancer and how you could be another pCR!!! You'll beat this yet!
I'll keep praying for you and your family; hang in there!
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