To Luckduck,
I'm in the same boat as you. Onc told me in Sept that there were no more standard treatments for me. No more scans, blood tests, appointments, etc., just: that's it. Totally overwhelming at the time. Because I agreed to a Phase 1 trial, I did get another ct scan, bloodwork and appointments but I backed out at the last moment.
Anyway, I had tried asking what was ahead for me and wasn't told anything. I think because they don't know squat. So I took an advance on my life insurance. Paid for my parents to fly in for Christmas, paid for our whole family to go to Hawaii in January, and I'm deciding where to go next. We're going to more concerts and doing "in-city" things we've never done before. I'm not making long-term plans but I'm not lying in bed waiting for the end!
I know others have told you to get a second opinion and I want to share about mine. There was no point in getting another opinion here in Alberta because they all read the same guideline and there's only 1 health region. So I paid for 2 second opinions in the States. The first got me a thoracic surgeon in Texas who said he could do rfa on my lung mets.
I was also accepted for a consult at MD Anderson in Houston (1 of the top cancer centers in the US) but they wanted me to go for a bunch of tests first costing $20,000 (probably a PET since I've never had one). So I asked my onc to do the out-of-country health expenses application form so that I could go. After a couple of weeks, she phoned to tell me that she couldn't do the form because the treatment wasn't "medically necessary"
Here I hit our system's catch-22. The rfa wasn't "standard treatment" in Alberta so she wouldn't approve it. But in Alberta, only chemo is standard treatment for non-surgical lung mets, nothing else. So I realized that it didn't matter what MD Anderson suggested either, it wouldn't get approved.
I am fighting this and making a little bit of headway but not fast enough for me. I'm fighting to get another ct scan so I know where I'm at and bloodwork to see where my CEA is at. When I was told there was nothing else they could do, my CEA was only 4.1.
I am investigating another option and if I'm a candidate, I will pay for it myself as it isn't as expensive as the Texas options.
I think you may have better luck than me checking out different options in Toronto. One dr at Sunnybrook told me that they're looking at microwave ablation for lung mets but he wouldn't give me any more information that that.
All the best to you,
Tricia