UPDATE

Today’s CT scan showed very little change from the last one. The last three weeks have been very difficult. Given that the goal of this exercise is to prolong life while maintaining an ability to enjoy life, we have decided to take a one month break from treatment, take another CT scan at that time and see if there has been any change. Based on those result we will make additional decisions. We will be doing a fluid tap here in the next few days as there has been some minimal, though noticeable, return of fluid around the lung. So my anticipation is that I should have a month to feel relatively good and hopefully begin to get some of my strength back. The shortness of breath that I have been experiencing has made it impossible to exercise. This break in treatment will also give us a chance to evaluate how much of my discomforts have been attributable to the treatment, and how much is attributable to the cancer or to something else. In an arena where decisions are difficult to make, outcomes are difficult to predict, one to one relationships are difficult to identify, this one month break seems extremely sensible to me. Treatment to date appears to be successful but quality of life has been less than desirable. This evaluation period will we hope help us bring some of this into balance.