Piedmont Follow Up Today

I had my follow up at Piedmont today.  I've decided to stay with my Oncologist here in Atlanta unless the Tareceva proves ineffective.

Of course, no new news.   I asked if he still had as much "hope" as before, and of course it was, "Samantha, you have stage IV mestatic lung cancer.  But the good news is, you can use Tarceva which has a 70% chance of being effective in stopping the growth/spread and shrinking the primary tumor.  You have a 50% chance of it being effective for 2 years or longer".  That beats 12-18 month survival!

He has one patient that has been on it 3 years and now NED (no evidence of disease).  I also asked if the Tarceva killed the cells in my left lung, could we treat it as a stage III since it would be localized.   He explained that the cancer could be all throughout my body, we don't know since MD Anderson only did a chest CT Scan.   Either way, at this point, the best thing to do is take the Tarceva, chest x-ray in 2 weeks and full body CT Scan after 3 months on the medication.   So, 3 months of not knowing if it's effective.

But, the good news is, after all of this, I didn't shed a tear.   All I thought about was Karley's actual birthday party!   I know that this cancer is beyond my control.

I rejoice today, and refuse to worry about tomorrow.  Staying in continual communication with Jesus Christ allows me to live above my circumstances, even while I'm in the midst of them.  I give Him thanks for today!  Please keep your prayers coming, I still need them!

Now, to the birthday party planning for Saturday!!!  I'll keep everything updated on here continuously if/when things change!