mission accomplished

We're back from Mom's Avastin infusion session. It went about as well as can be expected. Dad resolved some calendar issues with Dr. Meister's crew; NCI hadn't coordinated with Dr. Meister when they (NCI, that is) scheduled Mom's MRI and consultation. You'll recall that Mom is taking carboplatin along with Avastin; the carboplatin is the newest weapon in Mom's chemotherapy, and she's doing it for eight weeks so that NCI can determine its effectiveness on Mom's third mass.

With Mom becoming decreasingly verbal and increasingly perseverative, I'm not sure the drug is working at all. If anything, I expect we'll find that the tumor has grown right through the treatment and has become the size of the first two masses. Eight weeks is enough time for this to happen, as we've seen. If I'm wrong about carboplatin's ineffectiveness, I'll be very surprised; Mom's deteriorating behavior and condition both lead me to believe I'm right.

Dad has emailed NCI about the microcatheter treatment; we'll see what Dr. Fine's team has to say. Dad and I are in the midst of discussing whether we should get Mom some more aggressive treatment if NCI and Dr. Fine prove to be, as one commenter noted, more conservative in their approach to treating GBM. As always, the debate over quantity versus quality of life applies.


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