UPdate on my Mum

[Guest jana]

Hi all

I tried to post this yesterday but I must have done something wrong as it didn't work (I think). I wanted to talk about the treatment my Mum is having. She has been having an unconventional treatment called Tronado therapy (it is microwave therapy........supposed to target cancer cells and leave the healthy cells all alone, so few side effects). The treatment is not well accepted by the oncologists in our city and there is only anecdotal evidence to support its efficacy. However as Mum is Stage IV NSCLC they were keen to try it, as it seemed to have more of a curative intent than any other option. But, Mum was going to be having chemo after her first round of Tronado, but found out last week that if she has chemo she won't be able to have tronado again (I don't quite understand why.......something to do with chemo being toxic to ALL cells, and therefore Tronado doesn't work properly afterwards, so it's not worth doing). So basically now Mum has to decide if she wants to continue with the Tronado therapy or stop it altogether and switch to chemo. She is having a CT scan in about 4 - 6 weeks to see if the tumour has responded to the Tronado therapy. But if she waits until then to decide about chemo it means it will be about 4 months all up since diagnosis before she starts chemo. This seems like a big delay to me, and makes me worried that things will have grown and gone all nasty if the Tronado isn't working. I guess I don't reallly have any questions. I just needed to get this off my chest as I have been scared now thinking that basically Mum might have no surgery, no radio and now no chemo either. I always felt her chances of survival were pretty good, because of what a strong person she is and her fortitude to fight this, but if she has NO conventional treatment that scares me. Anyway, I guess conventional treatment doesn't offer LOTS of cures so maybe it doesn't matter. I am just confused....................and SO much wish every day, every single day, that this would all just go away. When you realise it is here forever ,it is such a devastating and unfair thought.

Thinking of all of you and hoping for a cure......

Thanks for listening...