So my mom is too weak for chemo right now, she's having diarrhea on and off and has lost a lot of weight. She's in bed most of the time and has quickly become quite weak. Hopefully, a minor miracle will happen one of these days, so she'll be able to get out of her bed, stand on her legs and make it to the hospital. Because - the plan is to start chemo (CAPOX) in a couple of weeks, oxaliplatin IV on day 1 and capecitabine twice daily for two weeks.
My questions are: what can realistically be expected from this treatment? Can CAPOX make the tumors shrink? They were 5 and 9 cms a month ago. How long or how many rounds of CAPOX would it take to shrink tumors enough to make surgery possible? How fast do rectal and colon tumors grow, while she's not getting any treatment? I know that noone can answer these questions with any degree of certainty, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. I don't know whether there's still hope that she may get better or if I should consider this "treatment" more of a palliative approach and prepare myself mentally that time is running out.
I know that many of you will say "be optimistic", "keep fighting", "don't ever give up" and so on. I haven't let my mom in on these thoughts, obviously, on the contrary I try to be very optimistic and encourage her to fight, but when I'm alone I worry a lot and I'd like to know what I can realistically expect. Hope this makes sense.
And thanks for any input.