I have to say that summer is flying by so quickly. I am enjoying the summer, doing lots of yard work, keeping things in order in our lives and the family all in line. Therefore I find myself very tired each evening. I do hope that each of you are also enjoying everyday and remember to "Treasure Your Memories"
Well for those of you that have been asking me how Fred is and how things are going with treatments I thought I would just give you a quick update and plan of action. This week we finished treatment # 5 of 6. Yes that means in two weeks we will finish up this round of treatment. OHHH HAPPY DAY.
We know that the treatment is working because the CEA level continues to drop. If you forgot what a CEA level is refere to my post " Treatment #3" Before we started treatment the CEA was 393. After two treatments it dropped to 202. We tested again before we did treatment #5 this week and it had dropped again to 124. That is fantastic news. That means we are getting closer to normal. I don't know if we will ever get to normal and only time will tell, but at least we are getting closer and we are thrilled about that. We consider that big of a drop in the CEA a complete miracle and blessing.
Well the plan from this point is next week we are going to have another PET scan and compare it to the one we had before treatment started. We hope and pray that the tumors are much smaller and some of them gone. In two weeks we will complete treatment #6 and this round. OHHH how I wish I could say that we were finished with treatments all together, but I can't. We need to keep doing something or it will give those nasty Cancer cells an opportunity to grow again and we don't want that.
One of the drugs in Fred's cocktail is called Oxaliplatin. After eight treatments of Oxaliplatin it can cause neuropathy (numbness, tingling, and nerve damage). Thank goodness our Dr is trying to prevent any of that from happening so that is why this set of treatment we are stopping after #6. It is a toxic drug and causes most of the fatigue and cold sensitivity. So we are pleased to stop that drug for a little while. We will stay on the other two drugs Avastin and 5-FU for probably another three months. We can continue to go in and have the IV form of this cocktail or we can go onto the oral pill form of these two drugs. We may also need to consider doing some radiation. I will know more after we get the results from the PET scan and chat with the doctor at our next treatment in two weeks.
Well that is it in a nutshell. We are doing great. Things could be so much worse, they could also be better at times, but we are grateful with how well we are doing and responding to the treatments. I am so amazed at the medical treatments and know it is helping so much, but I also know that your prayers, concerns, and friendships have just as much impact in our healing. I have to thank you so much and feel very blessed to have you all in my life. I know many of you I have never met before, but I feel like I know you very well and I do treasure your friendship and I plan to be there for you in your time of need.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have fantastic week.
