Friday, April 20, 2012

Avastin Is Fucking Incredible

If you haven't heard the news, my mom had an MRI on Monday, and the results were very positive!

The Avastin has been working and the tumors are shrinking! I don't think I've ever sobbed uncontrollably out of pure happiness before. But I just couldn't help it. The tears of joy just started pouring out of me. After 2 craniotomies and several failed clinical trials, I had lost almost all of my hope for my mom. I had read about the signs of GBM progression and what the patient looks like when death is nearing. And I know my mom was heading down that path, and rather quickly.

But then she started the Avastin and things started changing. (You can read about it in my previous post "I Don't Know Who To Thank")

It's not that everything's better again. Her cognitive abilities are still that of a 4 year old. And she still has no filter on what she says. She tends to say things that would never be appropriate for a mother to tell her own daughter. I won't go into details, but let’s just say I've learned a lot about my mom's past ever since the cancer diagnosis.

But she's doing better physically. It's not a big change, but she can walk again now (with her walker of course). Which is good because that wheelchair as very difficult for everybody.

So the moral of this story is that I'm insanely thrilled that my mom's tumors are smaller, but I also know that it can take a turn for the worse at any time really. Especially if her platelets are too low for an Avastin infusion (which was the reason we didn’t start Avastin earlier). I hope to god that doesn't happen again. That one week without the Avastin was the week she was at her worst. I don't want to see her like that ever ever again.

The other moral of the story is that Avastin is fucking incredible!

No comments:

Post a Comment