Another 7%

Mom had another CAT scan Friday. Each time she has been going to her chemotherapy treatments at the Zeigmeister Center she has been experiencing blood clots in her port. They giver her a shot that will supposedly break up the clot (clot buster as the nurses call it) but she also has to put her head between her legs (making the port go below her heart), take a walk (to get the blood flowing), and other activities that extend the time she is at the chemotherapy center. So on her long days of treatment this makes it even longer and more tiring. It also is worrying. What if all this stuff doesn't work? Why is it clotting? What next?I talked to Mom on Tuesday, her chemotherapy day and the day she was to get the results from her CAT scan. Of course she was tired since this was also her long day for chemotherapy. I don't usually talk to her on those days (I don't do my daily call on the way home from work.) so that she can sleep/rest. This day was different. Yes, she was tired but she had good news. Her tumor has been reduced by another 7 %. Which means that if I'm doing the math right (remember I went into English for a reason), and if it is 7 % from the original tumor and not 7 % from the last CAT scan, the tumor has been reduced by 32% since she started chemotherapy. The CAT scan of her chest showed that there was a blockage. That means that there really has been a clot that has formed around where her chemotherapy port is located. I don't know if they have a plan for attack for this, but it didn't seem to be that unusual, or maybe I should say the doctor didn't seem that surprised. We'll just have to ask more questions to find out if there is anything they can do. But we are as Mom says "1/3 of the way to where she wants to be."

-- Stephanie