4 months of treatment – CT Scan

Thursday I had my two monthly CT scan. The same procedure where I first need to have blood drawn for my OV125 tumour marker and need to consume nearly one litre of barium sulphate – this stuff blows you up like something else – I am surprised that I am not floating yet! Directly after the scan I headed off to work and waited patiently for the doctors to phone with the results. I received the phone call around noon on Friday. The tumours are reduced in size again – the good news! I then asked the Doc how long I still need to remain on Patupilone? Surely this will only be for another few rounds and then I can get on with my normal life again. The reply was that I would need to continue indefinitely to keep the cancer at bay. The Docs are saying that it is my call when I discontinue with the treatment. At the time of the phone call I asked lots of question, but with the passage of time I have more questions now. I need to ask them why they say this – is this due to possible legal action should they recommend to discontinue treatment and then the cancer grow again? Or does the drug only target the tumour but not all the microscopic cells that are swimming around? My logic says that at a certain point I should be stopping the chemo. Or are the new chemo drugs being developed similar to chronic medicines like for high blood pressure – where they treat the symptom but do not address the cause. Is this because medically they don’t know what the cause it either?? I will continue to make a list of all my questions and asked them when I next see the Docs face to face, 12 March. For now, we continue for another two months (3 rounds of chemo) and then reassess with the CT scans end April.