I have good news and not such good news.....

said Ella's Oncologist...

Good news - reiteration that the operation two weeks ago went well and that the whole tumour is out!

Not such good news - the removed tumour is not 100% dead - there were still live cancer cells in it.  The % of live cells is still not clear and is difficult to work out due to previous operations, so very much as my last post - work in progress.  Whilst 100% dead would have been the optimum result, we were sorting of expecting to hear that there were still some live cells - its just not knowing how many!  Grrrrrrrrr

So the next three rounds of chemo are even more important to clear up any "little buggers" (cancer cells) still knocking around.  They are reviewing the types of chemo that they plan to give her as one of them - Cisplatin - has and is effecting her hearing, "ringing in the ears" and reduced hearing functionality.  

Today they also took an x ray of Ella's lungs.

So when she goes into hospital on Monday to start chemo, we will hopefully get more answers:

1.  Is the % result through yet?
2.  What is the chemo schedule going to be for the next three months and at what point will they do the second operation on her arm
3.  What are the results from her chest/lung x ray

Finally they are applying for funding to give her another type of chemo called "Mepact"   She is a good candidate for this drug, except she has secondary tumours in her lungs.  Normally they only give this drug to  non-metastasizing, resectable osteosarcoma patients.  Its a fairly new drug and apparently has produced some good results in terms of preventing cancer coming back but is by no means a wonder drug, so not the end of the world if they don't get the funding!

As ever, a huge amount to take in.  Somehow we feel a bit flat. 

It was  family affair at Oncology hospital today - my Mum was there for her check up!  Two members of your family with cancer - definitely NOT FAIR!