Cancer Does Not Always Play By The Rules

I was sitting in the lobby of the cancer center a few weeks ago and a sweet darling hispanic lady turned to me and asked if chemo makes you really nauseated.  Of course I explained to her that that was totally dependent on which drugs they give you.  She told me she had had a spot on her thigh about 4-5 inches in diameter.  When she finally saw the Dr. about it she was alarmed to hear that it was melanoma.  She continued to explain to me how shocked she was with her diagnosis.  I know, me too.  She said there is no cancer in her family.  Me too.  She said she does not eat poorly nor drink soda.  Me too.  She said she never dreamed she would get cancer.  Me too.  About that time the nurse called for "Gloria" and she got up and left.  I wished Gloria "good luck" and have not seen her since. She had had her melanoma surgically removed and was there that day to start preparing for preventative chemo.  She was scared.  Me too.  Every time.

We had disappointing news while at chemo this morning.  My antigen numbers have tripled in the last month.  We are of course upset.  It is an indication that probably the drug that was helping is the one we had to eliminate because of the allergic reaction.  Just to give it one last chance, I suppose, we will keep me on the drug that does not seem to be working (???????) for the next three weeks (starting today) and after we finish up I will have a PET scan and then we will take it from there.  We pray continually that the oncologist will be inspired to make the right decisions for me, so, because of our prayers for that, we put our trust there.  Pressing forward, whether cancer plays by the rules or not.