Yes, Dinah, I got your email and replied. Thank you.

Also thank you, Brett and Rosie, for your kind words. Scott and I did discuss end-of-life and quality-of-life issues this morning. We had not really gotten into it before because we still had so much hope that surgery would be more successful. Now we know we must prepare for the hard stuff even though it is a task neither of us wants to take on.

We are researching other treatment options, including clinical trials (even though our doctor did not think it would do much good to "take a shot in the dark"). In the meantime, the chemo pill my husband is taking is called Xeloda (which the body converts to fluroeurocil, 5-FU). It has apparently shown good results with stubborn breast cancer, so the thought is that although my husband had the IV infusion of 5-Fu previously, this pill version will do something differently with his recurrence as it has done with breast cancer patients.

If that med fails, then our only other option at UVa would be to try Iressa (which I've already heard makes some people pretty sick). We are not sure if we want to try a second chemo pill that has only a 10-20% chance of doing ANYTHING. That may be the point where we would want to start a clinical trial. I just can't see doing nothing. That means certain death sooner rather than later.

My husband is not giving up. He is being so strong and has such a good attitude...it has to be helping. He has a lot of kick in him yet.

Christine