1st September 2010

As it turns out Louis has to stay a little longer in Brisbane so Helen and I continue solo. We went to a play reading about the Katherine Flood on Sunday in the last gasp of the Darwin Festival. Neither of us found the play itself fabulous but it was a fun outing and we bumped into Helen's friends Megan and Denise.
Monday was a day of medical review. We went to see Dr K the oncologist first thing in the morning. His impression of Helen's vision was that it may well be a para neoplastic (weird syndrome associated with cancer) or idiopathic (something doctors can't explain) optic neuritis (inflammation of the nerves supplying the eyes. As such steroids may still be some help so we're going on with a higher dose of these for now.
In other medical news the scans and blood tests were all very positive - shockingly so in some ways.
Her lung cancer remains the same size or a little smaller, the pulmonary emboli are no longer visible, the fluid in the right lung is stable. There are no new metastases seen. The blood tests are all better than back in Brisbane - including almost normal sodium.
So...what does this all mean?
He has offered an oral anti-cancer treatment called Geftinib which sounds worth trying. Apparently it has a 50-60% chance of shrinking the cancer and treating para neoplastic syndromes. Side-effects mostly not too bad and can resolve if you stop the treatment. So we are going to wait until the steroid has had maximal chance to help with the eyes then consider whether to start with this new thing for a bit or not.
Certainly Louis and I feel on a roller coaster - the suggestion that she might have new brain tumours causing the vision deterioration seemed pretty dire and we were both anticipating a rapid progression and deterioration. Instead we have this very positive review...
Prognosis is of course uncertain and she still requires a lot of active care to keep her happy, healthy and able to enjoy life but she is enjoying life and it seems it will not be imminently curtailed. So...we go on!