Today we went in for our meeting with the oncologist to see how Ma responded to treatment. Her last chemo was January 24th and it’s been about a month since she finished radiation.  Overall it went according to plan. 

 

The scans show there is clearly less cell activity in the lung and the tumor is measuring smaller.  Now we would have loved to see no activity at all in the lungs but that’s not the the reality of how the PET scan works. The PET scan doesn’t actually show cancer but shows how cells are working. So why there are still some small spots on the scans- that could be inflammation from the radiation or could still be some cancer…from just a scan he can’t say it is cancer and he can’t say it isn’t cancer (and treatment is the same either way). The big picture view of the scan is that the activity was greatly reduced and that after a long discussion of the options- we all agreed immunotherapy will be the best course and we will rescan in 3 months to be sure the spots continue to get smaller and smaller. Ma has some pretty good science supporting her and is anideal candidate for immunotherapy so that is awesome! Also side effects with immunotherapy are more ideal than the ones tied to the chemo so that is a nice break-  but we do have to watch for the ‘itis’. Yes that’s what the doctor said- so that’s a new one for me. Conjunctivitis you have been warned. 

 

So ma will do the immunotherapy every 3 weeks (a little more in the beginning) and we will check back in with scans in 3 months to see how much ass kicking she has done. As long as things continue to trend up and no bronch procedures are needed we will also get that blood clot filter removed around that time as well. 

 

As always we appreciate everyone’s support. Ma is slowly working herself back into the real world but with respiratory illness still high- we have to continue to be cautious of public settings and all them germs. 🦠