A lot of people seem angry and confused because they think you either have cancer or don't. Some types are more like a chronic condition where you need to live with constant monitoring or adjustment of treatment.
A quick Google search reveals that Tiffany is most likely in "partial remission" which also applies to her type of cancer AND the treatment she received. This means there is no sign of active disease at the time and the tumour is still there but has not grown. If there are still zero changes after 4 weeks then the patient can be declared in full remission, although this doesn't necessarily mean they are cancer free. This probably explains why both the oncologist and surgeon feel it makes most sense to wait a bit, and she will possibly get the good news in 6 weeks (4 weeks by now).
These are a few other points that people are confused about but are pretty easy to decipher if you've been watching her for a while:
- They apparently found something suspicious in her lungs in the first hospital, however an ensuing scan at the Marsden showed it was not cancer. There probably is a nodule or some tiny lesion and she was referring to this in the last video. However this wasn't fully explained and made it sound far more serious to those who missed the original lung vids.
- How did she go from inoperable tumour not responding to chemo & radiation to NED? The most likely theory is that the scans done after radiation showed the tumour was still there and hadn't shrunk. This was what caused the urgency for surgery. However the tumour might ALREADY have been scar tissue at that point but they had no way of knowing. This is why the team wanted to run PET, MRI and biopsies. The biopsies obviously came back showing it was scar tissue so that alleviated the urgency for surgery.
- The surgeon agreed on the surgery BEFORE she got C.Diff. She was incredibly ill during that time which probably played a role in his decision that delaying the surgery (in light of no active cancer) might be wise. In the first video about not having surgery, I assumed the surgeon may have gotten cold feet as a result of the C.Diff infection but the later videos showed this has reasonable medical indications as well.
A few things that are being glossed over is that she is earning very well with her channel and merchandise. Socialblade numbers are usually in the middle of the range so around $3500 a month ad revenue, plus merch on top. She almost definitely earns more than the job as an optometrist but at the same time, good for her. She works incredibly hard putting videos out while being very ill or in hospital and deserves further respect for not taking on sponsorships. Literally nobody wants to see a product placement or Hello Fresh discount code during a video about cancer scans, and there's plenty of that on YouTube as well.
If all goes well, and truly hoping this for her, her channel will just run on as everyday vlogs with the occasional checkup. In 4 weeks they'll probably tell her she's in full remission because the tumour hasn't changed so that will be a big celebration video. It honestly seems unlikely that there will be need for surgery, as the surgeon also mentioned if the cancer comes back as stage 4 then there's no point operating.