Off Chemotherapy and back on Hormone Therapy

I last met with Dr. Matei on Valentine's Day to discuss the PET scan results and decide on a plan for my treatment at Rocky Mountain Cancer Center.  I was not in a good mood as I had learned that my tumor markers had gone up from 346 to 376.  This was after my last chemotherapy, which I found very displeasing, because for all that chemotherapy entails I would have expected and appreciated a drop, even a little drop.

Dr. Matei reminded me that it is more important to pay attention to the overall trend and not to get upset over a single rise in tumor markers.  She felt that overall, Adriamycin and Cytoxan had done a good job for me and that we had enjoyed good results.  She suggested that I take a few months off to recover and give Aromasin a try.  Aromasin is an aromatase inhibitor and can only be used for women who are post menopausal. Last year, something suspect showed up on my PET scan in one of my ovaries so I had them removed which is called an oophorectomy.  For this round she promised that we would keep an eye on things and take action if I didn't respond well to this hormone therapy. 

I have previously been on Tamoxifen and Faslodex but it did not help keep things at bay despite the fact that my cancer is ER-positive.  I asked Dr. Matei if going on Aromasin was risky with my history of anti-estrogen medications but she felt that it was not.  I have asked her if it would be unrealistic to hope that at some point I will be in remission and not on treatment and she stated that it was very unrealistic.  In fact, she stated that I will go back and forth between chemo therapies and oral medications until at some point this disease takes my life.

I realize that this is not pleasant reading material and I can tell you it is not any more pleasant to have these conversations in person.  I feel that it is important to give my readers all the information about this journey and not just the pleasant parts.  I spend a lot of time thinking about topics and trying to figure out what to blog about.  If there are things you have been wondering about please feel free to ask.  No subject is out of bounds.  I am pretty open.