New treatment

28 March 2009, Saturday

Got the results for the PET scan yesterday. It's a mixed of good and bad news. Good news is that there is some reduction in the cancer activity for the major mass of cancer cells on the liver. It has not spread to other organs and the functionality of my major organs, including the liver, has not been affected; the bad news is that there are 3 new spots within the liver that have shown up. In addition, one cancer cell on the lymph node on the left shoulder has doubled its size and increase cancer activity. The verdict is that the current medication that I'm taking has lost its effectivetiness.

The pain that I am experiencing lately is due to the swollen liver, arising from the cancer cells. Will have to make do with pain killers for time being while using the new medication to solve the cause of the problem.

The oncologist recommended that I should try the "smart drug", where these medicines are not chemo drugs, but are used for treating cancers. They are Avastin & Rapamycin. The objectives of the former drug is to stop the blood vessels for supplying nutrients to the cancer cells and is given once every 3 weeks intravenaously and the latter drug is to stop the cancer cells from duplicating and has to be taken orally on a daily basis. Both of them have side effects, such as nausea, vomitting, rash, breathlessness, headache, constpiation/diarrhoea and the former drug can also cause increase in blood pressure. The costs are also more expensive, almost double the costs for my 1st set of medicine.

TCM has also modified her medication to give me something to fight against the toxic, since I am not on chemo drugs.I started on the new medicine yesterday.

Praying hard that this time my body will respond better to the new drugs.

Will only know the effectiveness of the new drug until 2 or 3 cycles later, then I will go for another PET scan.