Friday I had a meeting with my oncologist PA. I've been having concerns about "events" that had me questioning my onc abilities. The one that set me off was when he told me that if I'm NED in February I wouldn't have another scan for a year. Knowing that cancer recurrence happens about 80% before the first two years..I couldn't see having my next scan just before my three mark..this news didn't make me happy.
So I met Shelly who was very nice. She said start asking me questions and I'll answer them the best I can. My concern was my cancer outlook, nothing can be worst then to be told your lab reports look good ..see you in three months. I wanted to know about my cancer treatment and what it all meant for me. I was told that I responded very well to FOLFOX /avastin over and above what is normally expected....and being NED during chemo and 6 months out is a positive sign . Now don't get me wrong, I know a lot of this is BS to make the patient have a positive outlook. Butt I was told that the longer away from my original chemo ....if and when my cancer comes back I can have the same treatment again since I responded so well with it.
There was one thing that caught my attention looking at my progress reports...I questioned everyone here about maintenance and ws told no if I was NED. On my first scan 3/17/14 after chemo, my report said " NED..discussed port maintenance, possible maint avastin if approved, addressed methods of f/u, labs, imaging,etc". I don't recall discussing maintenance with him...regarding avastin. Am I reading this statement wrong? Thought if I was NED there was no maintenance.
I also mentioned oligometastatic...which she never heard of... And if I make it to 5 years, what was my survival rate then...she said 50/50 chance....um-hum. Covered her butt on that on..
All and all...I'm still here..
Jan