Time and Options - No straight Answers
by Michael
(Florida)
My wife, 47 year old, 4 weeks ago we went to the ER with severe abdominal pains and vomiting. It turns out she had a blockage in her Ascending, right side Colon.
This was removed, hemicolectomy. The pathology report describes the biopsied setion as a T3 poorly defined mass with a positive margin, positive for cancer in the liver, and 11 of 18 Lymph glands positive. The spots in the Liver shown by the CAT scan are distributed across the right and left lobes.
My wife feels fine, now that the obstruction was removed. Plumbing is fine, no colostomy. The oncologist stated this was incurrable and that with vigorous treatment - chemo - it can extend survival. I feel that their solution is to prolong the suffering to possibly delay the inevitable.
The things we want to know they seem unwilling to state. Maybe somebody on this forum can clarify. In the present state without treatment what will happen and when, do we have months or years. If treated, the likelihood treatment will be effective and the extent of the effectiveness. Impact of the chemo treatment on the quality of daily life.
With such a grim diagnosis the question begs, if treatment extends survival time 30% but the cost is a 50% reduction of the quality who is benefiting from the treatment.
