Kyle here:
At Cathy's cycle 9 visit this week it was decided to put the next scan off for a couple of cycles (each cycle is two weeks) rather than do it after her 10th as originally planned. They will probably wait until her 12th since Cathy's blood work and her handling of the chemo are both very good. The less scans the better since x-rays are not something you want to receive too often.
Cathy has also been meeting with a social worker and another mom who has cancer and also has young children. This support group was the idea of the social worker (who is awesome) who made the point that so often with cancer, support groups tend to focus on elderly patients or children. There are not a lot of resources regarding receiving cancer treatment while raising young children (especially a beautiful, active girl who has deservedly earned the nicknames, Carracane, Carranado, and Carrabiner - for her climbing). Cathy has enjoyed her discussions with someone who really understands her situation.
As hard as it is, Cathy and I are trying to be patient as we continue treatment but remain in a bit of limbo by not knowing where our cancer journey will bring us in the months and years ahead. As many times and ways that I try to cajole some kind of prognosis from Cathy's doctors I have found a recurring and very simple answer, "We don't know". Basically anything can happen and Cathy's current oncologist has said she has seen all types of situations and many different results. More often than not I hear, "Patients react differently and every case is too different to say for sure." As hard as this may be to hear because as humans we like to think we are in control - taking in info and making decisions - the truth is, we are not. But, what we are in control of, is how we react to the events that life throws at us. Although Cathy has not received any awful prognosis like "you have 3 months to live", she also has not received a prognosis of "we'll remove the tumor and after 6 chemo cycles you should be cancer free." What that leaves is this "we don't know" limbo prognosis.
Well, to me there is a bright side there. It seems much of Cathy's recovery may have to do with non-medical approaches which Cathy and I can control like diet, exercise, meditation, and so on. So, since she may not be able to rely solely on medicine, her cancer may serve as a catalyst to make many life changes that are long overdue (especially for me). We have already begun Tai Chi with her father and though we can't 'repulse the monkey' yet, we can 'part the wild horses mane' and that is a start. And who better to learn from than a master Tai Chi instructor - who doesn't charge us!
As a side note, Cathy's current oncologist is great. She smiles and laughs and thinks Cathy is doing absolutely wonderful based on her appearance, reaction to the chemo and blood work. We really like this doctor. But no, she still can not give us a definite prognosis.
Love to all, thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
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