What's Up With the Doc 43? - Not Good News

For those of you who have not yet heard, today's scan was not good. Everything that was there before is measurably larger and there are lots of new lesions in lungs, liver and bone. I knew what the scan was going to show. I started having left hip pain over the weekend and it progressed to the point where I'm limping today. I told Robert this morning to expect a bad scan. So no chemo today. The hip pain is from a lesion in the pelvis side of the joint that has broken through into the joint. My oncologist has to talk to my orthopedic surgeon to figure out what and how quickly something has to be done about that. The oncologist wants to go back to my original chemo regimen starting Friday and see if he can control the lesion that way. I don't think the orthopod is going to OK that - he's already ordered me to use a cane and I recognize that if I fracture through the met I'm really screwed. They'll talk tomorrow and come up with a plan. I may have to do radiation therapy or less likely have surgery to stabilize the hip before I can start chemo. Onc could also give me lower weekly doses of chemo during radiation therapy. I told him this is his last shot at "hitting it hard." He gets two full cycles and a scan. If that scan doesn't show stable disease or better then it's palliative care or a clinical study.

So I don't quite have a plan in place but will by the end of the week. I really feel OK - no fevers since last Thursday, nausea letting up, appetite improved, no pain except the hip and that's not really so bad. Still going to volleyball tournaments and working.

There really isn't any question about where this is going, only how long it will take to get there. Damn it all to hell.