Zometa

My mother finally started Zometa when I was in Italy. She had her first infusion early Octobe rand is due for her second on the 5th on November.

She's been a trooper about all her treatments but really doesn't like the Zometa and seems fixated on it not being good for her. She complains of Severe Musculoskeletal Pain. I'm not sure if that would be the Zometa or all the lesions she has in her back and legs to begin with. Perhaps even the dampness/cold as the Italian fall/winter starts.

We are going to talk to her oncologist about this but I feel we've kind of hit the standard Italian wall of red tape.

I was hoping there were some current and previous Zometa users here who could advise based on their own experience with this drug.

Is there really any benefit for her to do Zometa at this stage? She has one more chemo session on OCt 29th and the oncologist advised that this would be the last chemo she ever does. When we asked "what next" she simply said a c-Scan early November and then said if necessary we will have 2nd and then even 3rd lines of defense that do not include Chemo. No idea what these could be. Didn't want to go in depth since my mother was there and my gut feeling is that she was just trying to make my mother feel positive in what is otherwise a written book.

Last scan showed a potential new spot and no shrinkage or growth in lungs. I head back again in december or January. Her memory is absolutely shot. Not sure if its the chemo, the daily morphine, or just the fact that she's basically been in bed for 6 months now. I'm running out of BBC shows to get her on iTunes.

I spent the day with her in the infusion room. Her platinum (???) chemo took 4+ hours and we were th elast out of the room. Thought of some of you that morning, especially Todd's poem/song.