2011-11-03: New treatment? Maybe?

Just received a phone call from my oncologist tonight (Thu Nov 3rd).

She has given me some hope. I don't have a lot of details, and I will post again when I have proper spelling and specifications, but for now here's a very rough sketch of what they are looking into for me.

1. To help with pain in my liver, and as purely a palliative treatment option, not a cure, they are going to (finally) look into Cyber Knife on some of the tissue in my liver. The hope is to relieve some of the pressure to stop (or ease) the pain and reduce the risk of tearing the fluid sack surrounding the liver. This may give me a few more months at least. It's a start.
2. As recently as Tuesday Nov 1st, 2011 (2 days ago), the government has approved a new drug and clinical trials for it. I don't have the spelling yet, but here's what has to happen for me to be eligible for this new drug trial. First, a sample taken from my original esophageal cancer tissue (taken June 2010) must be analyzed and be shown to have a specific cancer "marker" or "trait". If it exhibits that trait, then I will be eligible for the new drug. The new drug would be taken in combination with other more traditional chemo drugs like Cisplatin (the nasty nauseating one).

Oh, on a side note, finally received a "lift chair". The thing is MASSIVE. They had to take back the first two chairs (that were more my size) due to first electrical problems (almost fried the delivery guy), then a mechanical problem (would have lifted you off the side of the chair, instead of in front of the chair) because the wood broke. So the 3rd choice was a chair for someone 7 feet tall and 350 lbs. Kaye (or a kid) and I can sit side by side in it and cuddle. So I'm not sure if it's as helpful as it would be if it was tailored to me, but it's free and I'm sure it will help more later on than if I didn't have it.

Note: I may also be trying "Essiac" soon, an herbal concoction favoured by many cancer patients as it is believed to boost the immune system. It's considered naturopathic in origin and clinical trials have been inconclusive. They all seem to agree that it isn't a harmful substance, and does exhibit some immune system benefits. So as for its cancer fighting ability, that purely depends on the person's own immune system to fight it off. But if you have cancer already, then that isn't guaranteed to work in anyone by any stretch of the imagination.

Regards,
Shane