Choosing Chemo isn't like picking out a new pair of shoes

I am often dumbfounded over the change I have seen in medical practice these days...or maybe it is partly the difference I see between oncology practices here and in Connecticut.   It seems to me that here at least the patient is put in the drivers seat.....sometimes it is an uncomfortable place to be.  Here we are, relatively inexperienced, or even if we are experienced, we barely have the beginning of knowing what to do other than to apply brakes and use the turn indicators.  Maybe.

You see earlier this year I went in to the oncologists.  My liver biopsy had proven negative (there was some uptake which wasn't cancer) and my tumor markers were stable and the bone metastases didn't show any progression on the P.E.T. scan.   We reviewed where we were.  My oncologist then asked me "Do you want to stay on this or do you want to try something else?"

Huh?

I'm not a doctor.  We are not picking out a pair of shoes based on looks and maybe purpose and comfort.   Heck, I'd feel better if I had even those earmarks for choosing chemos.  But I don't.  In fact, since it is "only in my bone" we don't have anything to even test to see if it has changed HER2Neu or hormone receptor activity.  So...why in the heck am I being asked what I want to do?

Well...if I had my choice, I would ask for a huge pair of scissors like these to just snip that old cancer out and kill it with some really big guns.  But I don't have much of a choice....

So...I feel like I am Mr. Toad in the driver's seat preparing for another wild ride.

What did I say? Why should we change if I am stable and there isn't any progression?  Unless, of course, you know something I don't or you have something which will give me fewer side effects and be more effective.

But there isn't.  So I continue trudging through Xeloda.