Still in Buffalo

It looks as though we will be cancelling our appointment at Princess Margaret for tomorrow and rescheduling for the 28th. The doctor at Roswell Park wants us to stay overnight and have an MRI of mums spine at 5.15 pm. She is also going to try hard to get us an appointment with an orthapedic oncologist, Dr Brian McGrath tomorrow because it is very important to stabalize her hip joint. Mum MUST try to walk as little as possible for the time being and avoid sudden movements....not an easy task ! Mum insisted on crawling into the back seat of the mini yesterday !

We heard from Dr O'Conner that her cancer is not curable but treatable and the fact that mum has not had chemotherapy before makes her an excellent candidate for treatment. She feels that the response rate is higher than 70% . Mums "disease free interval" has been very long . Most breast cancer that metastasizes comes back after 18-24 months. In mums case, it has been 15 years since her original diagnosis . The doctor thinks that the reason mum did so well originally is that her cancer is estrogen sensitive which makes her a great candidate for hormone treatment , similar to Tamoxifan and Arimadex . The other option might be a chemo drug called Herceptin which has revolutionized breast cancer treatment. Mum will be having a biopsy to see if her particular type of tumour can be treated with Herceptin but at this point, the doctor does'nt think she will be a candidate for this drug .

At the moment, mum is having a CT scan of her abdomen and chest. This afternoon, she is having an MRI of her brain :-( and blood drawn.

I am driving Andrew back to Ontario now and we will pick Colin up , get him packed and they will both be off to Vancouver tonight . This is great for me as at least I don't have to worry about Colin . There will be quite a few medical appointments ahead in the short term and then things will settle down . I'll be back at the Doubletree tonight and maybe tomorrow we can hit the great mall in Buffalo and have some retail therapy !

So I think at this point all three of us are feeling happier . The doctor was relatively positive and extremely confident . She feels that the type of cancer my mother follows an indolent course and is slow to progress. Women with this type of cancer, generally do quite well . That was good to hear after the crappy last couple of weeks.