A modest update, 11/20/2007

There's not a lot to say in this week's update. We did finish our radiation treatments, the last one coming on Monday. I suppose there is this to say: in the end, there were some modest signs that the radiation had a positive effect on my tumors. I have significantly increased motion in my left leg/hip, and there does seem to be slight improvement in my pain in the lower back. However, the pain in my side has been increasing as we have not treated it, and my overall pain level remains around the same.

I began chemo last Thursday, with the carboplatin/taxol combo. The effects are as I remember them -- I feel a bit queezy for several days following the treatment, and a bit tired, but am pulling out of that now. In the past, I have felt near-immediate (within a couple weeks) positive effect on my pain levels and tumors near the surface. Still nothing to report, but I will post as soon as I notice anything.

One curious thing with this most recent treatment...a reminder that the insurance company is hardly my friend. I ended up receiving my treatment at the hospital rather than at the oncology clinic. This because, for reasons beyond me, the insurance company was unwilling to pay the rates for the drugs available to the oncology clinic, while they had no problem paying the rates at the hospital. Part of the reason for this is that this combo (in spite of its success in treating my cancer) is not listed on the insurance company's list of "approved" regimens. I had brief concerns that they were going to refuse the treatment altogether, but thankfully this did not happen. I fear the day that the insurance company does refuse me treatment...my cancer being fairly rare, and the list of "approved" treatments likely small, slowly varying, with little room for modification on behalf of my doctors...it seems a reasonable fear. And yet, there's nothing to be done about it, so while I will be aware of the possibility, I will not let it bring me down.