I went into the doctors office determined to tell them that I wouldn't be doing any more rounds of chemo and that I wanted to get surgery. 30 minutes later I came out having agreed to do two more rounds. So what did they show me. While the large tumor in my Vena Cava has not changed in size, there is some shrinkage in the six lung nodules. There is some belief that if the lung nodules get small enough, they can be removed with surgery as well, but since these have been determined inoperable at thier current size, they need to be treated with chemo. The large one can be removed although new evidence suggests they may have to remove my right kidney as well (my favorite one, I really like that little guy).

Also they said if I were to take a 6 month break for surgery and recovery right now, I could build an immunity to the chemo treatments that seem to be working somewhat. If the lung tumors were to then come back with a vengeance, I would be as they say in the business, "screwed". I'm not sure I agree with their assessment however. It feels to me as if I'm building an immunity to the drugs as I take them consecutively. I am taking the nastiest part of the chemo at home. I seriously considered secretly not taking it and then seeing if my tumors size goes way down. My philosophy is that dead tumors shrink because macrophages eat the dead cells away. Since macrophages are a product of your immune system, it stand to reason that a healthy immune system could shrink a dead tumor. Then I would tell them as they pat them selves on the back that I didn't even take the pills. But if I'm wrong then I've just wasted six weeks.

I am currently half way through the 7nth round now and it's going pretty well so I guess I'll just suck it up and hope they are right. Raise your hand if any of this makes sense.