My mom had an appointment with her oncologist this morning. This is her second cancer doctor so it was the first time I got to meet him. He looks like he just graduated from college-- young. He kept my mom waiting for nearly 1/2 hour and then when he finally came in he took a few minutes to read through her chart. He had prescribed a new medicine for my mom last month and it had effected my mom negatively-- making her dizzy, swollen, tired and negatively effected her vision. My mom came to the appointment pretty adamant about not taking the meds anymore. He seemed at a loss as to what to do. It is hard to relay the whole conversation but here are a couple of standout statements heard:
"Your mom is a miracle case," noting that there were very few people with metastasized lung cancer alive after more than 4 years. The five-year survival rate of stage 4 lung cancer is only 4 percent.
"We are running out of options," explaining that if she did not take this new medications there weren't others for her try. She's run through quite a few different medications but they are no longer working because of the damage to her kidneys or liver. In her last scan, there were some signs that the cancer was progressing, which means she needs to do something to stop it.
In the end, my mom decided she would go on a half dose. She asked to start next month, he told her it needed to be next week. I prefer it to start up while I'm still here. I am concerned. I can see that this process is starting to wear my mom out. When I asked the doctor about "quality of life" he seemed baffled. She's been almost pain free thus far and beaten the odds dramatically. To him, negative symptoms from the meds meant pushing off negative symptoms from the cancer. I suppose it's a loose-loose scenario. When my brother came over later in the afternoon, he noticed my mom seemed sad. She was.
