Not Great News

Hi ellen93 

I am really sorry to hear that . It’s so difficult to sit and absorb such information.

I suspect my mum is a lot older than your husband so can’t make a direct comparison and she is only on one monoclonal agent Cetuximab. She was offered chemotherapy along with it but decided with her oncologist to balance out her quality of life . She can revisit it if required . Six months on from her diagnosis of her fourth recurrence and two months into treatment. I have not seen signs of further deterioration , actually she has gotten stronger and less breathless since starting treatment . Not sure if it’s directly attributed to her cancer but she does have mediastinal Lymph node involvement.

I take great encouragement from people who seem to do well treating it as a chronic condition . Mum has had several episodes of it staying away for prolonged periods of time then up it pops .

She has made some adjustments and decided not to ask too many questions around CEA this time etc and take it cycle by cycle . Certainly the hospital is well organised and she gets antibiotics, facial washes and creams to keep things at bay . Before on chemo she counted down cycle by cycle . That mindset has had to change and making it part of her life for the foreseeable future was quite a thought . However once we all got over that part we make it work . 

I think it’s more important to get the balance right between effective treatment and quality of life whereas my mum tolerated more side effects with chemotherapy when she knew it was ending after six cycles . 

Some people are literally in their sixth and seventh year on continuous treatment . 

Take care ,

Court