Ed's New Oncologist

Ed doesn't like for me to "talk" about him on this blog.  Nevertheless, I want to give a short update because I know many people are wondering....  

His scan this fall showed a slight increase in the size of the three main tumors in his lungs.  He decided to go to a local oncologist here in Port St. Lucie.  During his first visit with Dr. Bellam he learned things we didn’t know.

After 2 courses, Ed had stopped chemo because it didn’t shrink the tumors very much. Dr. Bellam said the purpose of chemo isn’t to make the tumors disappear but to kill them and make them stop growing. When the growth stops, it’s called remission.  We had been under the impression that the goal was to make the tumors go away.

Ed has decided to try more chemo. Dr. Bellam will give him only one drug at a time and something that’s not known to cause major fatigue like when he had chemo before.

It was in October, 2008 that Ed was told he had only 3-6 months to live.  We're greatly encouraged by Dr. Bellam's prediction that, with Ed's good general health, he will likely die from something besides cancer one of these years.

We have so much to be thankful for!