And The Beat Goes On

There’s not much to report except that my research and investigation is progressing. I have been in touch with Dr. Nosher’s assistant Donna who has been extremely helpful. Dr. Nosher is the radiologist who does the SIR Sphere treatments. There is a chance that I am a candidate but Dr. Nosher does not want to “medically manage” me. He would prefer that I was recommended to him for the procedure. My oncologist, Dr. George, does not seem to be familiar with the process. I contacted Dr. Nosher myself. The plan now is to go back to Dr. Poplin at the Cancer Institute of NJ whom I saw last May. At that time she suggested the possibility of clinical trials but since my current treatment was still working I opted to stick with it. She also recommended taking some time off from the chemo which I did. Donna is sending my info to Dr. Poplin. I will try to set up an appointment tomorrow. I have also been researching clinical trials. This is not going too well. There are not many around and those that are seem to exclude patients who have had previous chemo treatments. They are testing the efficacy of new drugs as frontline treatments. I haven’t been able to find any trials for secondary treatments, either in the present or the past. I believe that may be because there is not a large population of patients who are in my situation. While researching I was again coming across all the statistics showing that most patients with my diagnosis don’t survive beyond one year. I’m beyond 16 months now. I can’t help but feel like my best bet is to convince Dr. Poplin that I am not one of the statistics. I feel like I have defied the odds so far and my chances would be good if I can get her to take some unconventional approaches with me. We’ll see. Emotionally I’ve gotten over the initial shock of hearing that chemo is no longer working. I knew it was coming sooner or later so now I just have to deal with this next phase. To quote another patient I’m going to be realistic and expect a miracle. Carry on. ------------------------------------------------------