Cancer Diary February 2001

Wednesday, February 7	Office Visit to review results of scans. The bone scan, MRI of the abdomen and CT scan of the head were all negative. The chest MRI was more problematic, but still did not show any fast growing foci. Dr. Sharma said the chemotherapy Neila did last year probably killed any fast growing malignant cells, and those left are slow growing. She might go for three more years at just the level she is now, though that assumes a linear grow curve and we really don't know that. Nevertheless, the effects of chemotherapy are so bad he would not recommend it at this time. Best just to watch it closely and react to any changes. Neila was visibly upset. She already had a sense that she could not continue to beat the odds too much longer, and now he was telling her there was cancer in her body but we shouldn't do anything about it right now. Then he did something and utterly unlike what we have come to expect from doctors; he hugged her. It was the kind of human act we had learned from him. Dr. Perkins, though undoubtedly a good oncologist, would never have done it. Dr. Sharma on the other hand was able to tell Neila a stark truth, yet make her feel good about the visit. Our next visit and chest x-ray is March 26 at 9:30 am.
Tuesday, February 13	Terror We got a letter today from Southwest Diagnostic. Neila's mammogram, done almost as an afterthought, had some anomalies and she will have to go back for a repeat. They tried to make it sound routine. Neila doesn't believe them.
Thursday, February 15	The twins arrive! It has nothing to do with this cancer diary, but no one in the family can contain themselves - Claudia, our daughter, gave birth to twin girls today: Erika and Emily. Here is their first picture gallery.
Friday, February 16	The second mammogram revealed nothing new-a false alarm.