I went to my interim appointment yesterday with my oncologist. Everything is fine. My bloodwork is normal, my weight has remained steady and I am having no pain. He is pleased with my progress thus far and sees no reason to modify anything at this point. I will be having another CT Scan in October and that will tell us if the Tarceva (my magic pill) is still working. I will see him again in September for another progress report and to schedule the CT Scan.

The best news of the day, however, was that the FDA has recently approved a new targeted therapy (a pill like Tarceva which attacks the cancer directly and which only works for people with my EGFR mutation — lucky me). This new pill is called AFATANIB and is designed to take over when the Tarceva is no longer effective. It will postpone chemotherapy for me by perhaps another year or so. We are certainly excited about this news, although we are hoping that the Tarceva works for another year or more (the average is about 12-15 months and I’ve been taking it for 7 months).

Life is good and I am extremely thankful!