Worried about my Dad

Good Morning!

I found this website this morning and wanted to share my dad’s story. He smoked till his late 30s. He is now 76.

6 years ago he fell off his bike while biking on the boardwalk at the Jersey shore. They did a scan of his ribs and saw cancer in one of his lung sacks (a cancer that was common for those who had previously smoked). They removed the sack and said it didn’t metastasize. They didn’t feel the need for treatment—just follow-up scans.

2 years later (4 years ago). He had pain in his knee. It was the same cancer. They gave him radiation treatments (strong ones) and it shrunk. PET scans were showing nothing else in his body. We were good for 3 years as the bone cancer was stable.

1 year ago his leg started hurting around his knee. They did another scan and said the cancer was becoming active in his knee with another small active lesion on his tibia, and a couple (too small to biopsy) lesions in both lungs and both kidneys (these are very stable but did appear). The one on his knee was eating away the bone. Since it was very active, he had surgery to scrape out the cancer and repair the knee with follow-up radiation to knee and leg. PET scan showed the cancer shrunk a bit in both places. They followed it and he received physical therapy this year.

A couple months ago a PET scan and complete MRI showed that the cancer in his leg is becoming more active yet again. They advised that he now start chemo (carboplatin alimta and keytruda). They just did his PET baseline last week and found two more very small glows on his neck bone and his hip bone. His knee-leg cancer is active. However, the lesions in the soft tissue (lungs and kidneys) are stable- and again still too small to biopsy but definitely suspicious of the cancer. He starts chemo this Wednesday. They suggested this trio chemo once every three weeks for 12 weeks.

I hope you were able to follow me and I made sense. My mom is right by his side (married almost 60 years and still so in love). They are staying positive. This is so hard for me. I can’t believe that it’s my dad fighting this. He’s so sweet and smart (he was a science teacher his whole life). The doctors are saying that if the chemo works that the bones can repair themselves over time. Is this true? Is this scenario alike anyone out there? I am wondering if this trio will shrink bone cancer? Thank you ahead of time for any and all comments and support.