A Break From Cancer!

Melinda had her latest PET Scan on Monday. It is the gold standard for monitoring the progress of her treatments and how the tumors are responding to the chemo. "Her last one 2 months (2 cycles) ago in early September was scary good - showing a big improvement with the current chemo regimen (Irinotecan).  This after over a year of cycle after cycle of various chemo drugs with her tumors getting larger, more numerous, and more active. It was so good that I was suspicious that the techs had done something wrong, and that was the reason for the September scan showing so much improvement.

So it was with some nervousness that we went into today's oncology appointment to go over the results before this next cycle started. But the news was great! Continued huge improvement - only three tumors still visible, all smaller and less activity! Dr. Garland was hoping to keep things stable (no one talks about "curing" small-cell lung cancer), and she is as shocked as us that the drug is working as well as it is. We heard later from her nurse that Dr. Garland used her previous scan result in a meeting showing the resultant improvements.

Anyway, Dr Garland offered her a chemo break - taking a full cycle (month) off from treatments to let her body recover, and continue the attack on 3 December. We decided to take it - we're hoping to travel over Thanksgiving, so that would put her at full strength other than suffering the effects of her just-finished treatments. It is nice to know that the improvement is real and the side effects she has suffered through is leading to some real progress in beating this. And it will be nice to have a month to skip blood tests, chemo, and the cancer center in general! We're looking forward to 4 weeks of "normal" life!