Radiation over??

[Guest hearrean]

Well, I've taken a few days to digest this latest news & try & determine exactly what it means. Friday I went into my local Radiation Center for what I thought would be my (35th) & final IMRT treatment. My last chemo infusion was the prior Friday. The Radiation Onc met with me & told me that they haven't seen any shrinkage in my tumor + nodes. They do CT's w/o contrast. He gave me a choice of stopping now at # 35 or having (3) more treatments. FYI: I'm due to go back to MD Anderson this coming Thursday for re-testing (Blood work, chest x-ray & ct scan w/contrast).

What is interesting here is that 3 weeks ago when they re-scanned w/o contrast, another Onc in the same office (they have 3) told me it was so hard to tell if part of what they were seeing could be scar tissue. This Onc told me different however and said that it was highly unlikely that we would see scarring yet after (35) treatments. So what this means to me is that the radiation hasn't worked and the chemo (this time) hasn't worked (like it did the 1st time when it shrank everything by 50%).

So I'm pretty disgusted, scared & now depressed after being up mentally for so long. Of course I won't know officially until I have had the tests at MD Anderson & get the results from them on Friday (3/14), but I am still disappointed.

I posted on Dr. West's site & he indicated though it is very hard to know what part of what they are seeing is dead or dying cancer cells. I really see no advantage in having (3) more treatments & Dr. West's response was also that he didn't think it would be a profound advantage.

Just thought I'd share & would appreciate any prayers..

Ken

[Leela]

Ken,

I'm sorry the news wasn't better. I'll be hoping and praying you'll get better news on Friday.

Hugs,

Lisa

[fillise]

Ken,

I am sorry that the news wasn't better, but it might not be until you get the full barrage of tests later this week before you really know what is going on. That's really doesn't help the anxiety, I know. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers this week.

Susan

[Connie B]

Ken, Radiation continues to work for up to 6 months after we complete treatments. So, I wouldn't be to quick to write this off just yet!

I'm going to hope MD Anderson has a clearer picture for you. Tell them at MDA that you have had a couple opinions so far and neither one of them agree with one another. I think if it were me, I would want better clarification on these results.