Personal update

I'm not sure how many people come here (and only here) for articles and updates vs. Seeking Alpha, so I thought I'd offer a quick update on my wife's condition. Between Facebook, Seeking Alpha, and personal emails, I'm not really able to remember where I've said what, so apologies if there repetitions here.

This past week my wife ended her second round of radiation and received another pembro infusion. The radiation was a five-day course intended to treat a metastatic tumor in her pelvis that has caused her muscle pain and some loss of mobility. While she hasn't experienced the severe pain you often hear about with bone mets, it was enough to cause her to need ibuprofen every day and eventually need a cane to walk. Interestingly, ibuprofen is a more effective pain reliever for bony mets than heavier painkillers (like oxy).

Anyways, we should know relatively soon whether the radiation helped. The oncologist was not optimistic that it would cure that tumor or be a 100% solution, but it should help.

On the chemo front, her bloodwork has stayed quite good, which is very positive. It doesn't prove that her liver tumors are quiet, but it does suggest they're not causing significant damage to the liver at this point. We'll know more in February when she gets her next CT/PET. For the time being, though, she's doing pretty well - the drug seems to be keeping the cancer in check and is not causing too many side-effects. The most curious side-effect is that it seems to intensify muscle aches/pains. It doesn't cause them, but if she has them around the time of the infusion, the drug seems to dial them up.

So, that's about it. She is feeling pretty well, and that's about the best we can expect for now.