My Father has Lung Cancer

I know I have not written for a while, so this is going to be a long post.

The Tarceva treatment is/was going well. My father has developed a rash and was reasonably well although quite weak. The night sweats had reduced but his rash coupled with the pain in his recovering knee made his quite miserable. 

Anyhow, last Tuesday we went to see our new Oncologist. The meeting did not go as I had hoped. The plan was to move onto first line chemotherapy as soon as the Tarceva had run out, however the Oncologist decided that it was not an option. Chemotherapy was not being offered due to the potential harmful side affects.

This was a huge blow for my father, but I tried to shield the harsh truth from him as much as I could.

The came the Tarceva. The Oncologist advised that my father should stop Tarceva because of the bad Rash. He said the cost was too high and it was not offered on the NHS. In fact, he even went as far to say that Scotland would go bankrupt if they kept it up. The chances of Tarceva working was 10% according to him. Anyhow, I pushed for an X-ray to assess whether the medication had any impact at all. There was a blood test also performed and steroids prescribed to help increase my fathers weight.

The X-ray pictures proved to be inconclusive. At first he tried to compare the latest Xray picture with an old CT scan as he did not have an old X-ray on file. His first words were that he thought the tumor had increased. Luckily I had a cd containing all previous scans. Comparing the two X-rays, one dated 16th September and the other 13th November, we could not establish whether the Tumor had grown. My own personal feeling is that no growth is a positive sign that the Tarceva is in fact working.  However, I then pushed for a CT scan to be performed to make another comparison. My request for a PET scan was refused.

We left that meeting with our heads down, but also hope that the Tarceva may be working. 

I later received a call that my father was in need of a transfusion as his HB levels were below 9. This was scheduled for Wednesday morning.

As the Tarceva was due to run out on Friday, I decided to contact the LOC and speak to the Oncologist who prescribed the initial Tarceva. He agreed that a rash was a good sign and by virtue of the Tumor not growing it was a positive indication that the inhibitor was working. However, before prescribing another month of Tarceva the Oncologist would like to see my father and compare the X-rays for himself as well as perform a blood test. An appointment has been made for next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Tarceva has finished and we wait for Tuesday to arrive.

abdulazizuk Uncategorized