A Glimmer of Hope
1st Sep 2008
Meeting with Consultant today at hospital produced bit of good news.
He confirmed there was no more chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgical options that could be tried to halt the proliferation of cancer cells in Mrs D’s body. However’ he told us about a new drug – Tarceva – which seems to work with some people. It is a new drug (as these things go). It has been approved for use in Scotland but has not been given the go ahead yet by NICE for use in England. Birmingham Trust, however, has money set aside to run trials with selected patients who doctors think might benefit from this drug and he has offered Mrs D the opportunity to try this new drug. It’s advantage over chemotherapy being that unlike Chemothapy, this drug can pass through the brain-blood barrier and directly attack any cancer cells in the brain.
No - it's not us !
We were almost ’skipping’ when we left the hospital !!!
We stopped at our ‘local’ for a glass or two of red on the way home
Life with Mrs D 
Oh my…..1600 pounds a month!! I’m assuming you’ve received help from somewhere with that!
And I’m also assuming that is why Mrs. D. is still with us today!! 🙂
Thank goodness for the National Health Service in UK, YnB – it has not cost us a penny. All covered by the NHS !!!
And yes, the Tarceva has extended Mrs D’s life. Doctors were expecting it might give her an extra couple of months. In the event, she was on Tarceva for 10 months until it was withdrawn in June this year – when it was judged to have lost it’s effectiveness and she was given just weeks left to live and advised to make whatever arrangements/see friends/relatives etc she wanted to before it was too late.
Her only medication now is morphine and steroids to relieve the pain and make her remaining time as ‘comfortable’ as possible
And as Anita is till hanging in there, where do you define effectiveness? Please administer the daily gentle hug from us all…
Doctor’s decision based on scans showing tarceva no longer holding growth of the cancer in her lungs and brain in check
Well, it seems she keeps showing those doctors off!! A great big hug from over the pond and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU BOTH!!