2nd Day of Chemo At Home

Yesterday  (7/21/14) Steve and I received some really good news about his Stage 4 Colon Cancer.  His CEA number, which is the tumor marker in his blood, was lower – a lot lower!  When he was in the hospital the first week of June it was 536.  Then a few weeks later it was up to 834.8.  Yesterday it was 263.1.   Needless to say we both cried when I gave him the good news. That means the chemo is working. We saw the doctor today and he was very happy as well with the results.   He said the drop in his CEA is great after only 2 treatments.  I asked him if he expects that number to go to zero at some point, if…

I’ve received so many texts, IM’s and messages with words of encouragement, love and support and I appreciate it so much! But please know that I am OKAY.  We’ve expected his treatment to take this turn at some point and honestly, we thought it would be 2 months ago. I posted this on Facebook today but I know not everyone is on Facebook…… Thank you everyone for your prayers, thoughts and positive vibes. We are so lucky to have so many amazing people in our lives. I do feel blessed, considering the situation. The time we’ve had since his diagnosis has been a gift, a gift that one day the girls will realize was one of the best gifts ever. Right before Steve starts the…

I haven’t posted in a while.  Sorry about that.  I’ve talked with most of you in person rather than updating this site.  The reason why I haven’t updated, honestly, is because it hasn’t been news I wanted to share.  The news I want to share is “The tumors are shrinking!”  or ” the tumors are gone”.  But I haven’t been able to share that news because that’s not what has happened. Two months ago when Steve had a CT Scan there was a little bit of growth in his lungs.   The doctor believed that at the beginning of the year when he changed drugs and went a couple of cycles without one of them, the growth happened.   At the same time his CEA number went…

Steve had another CT Scan last week and it showed that unfortunately the cancer is still spreading in his lungs.  The liver is stable.  He also has some pretty swollen Lympnodes near his lungs.  His CEA is the same as it’s been the last 3 months – 11. We had a really good conversation with the doctor about what is happening and what we should do next.   So here is the plan right now: 1.  We are going to go to Dana Faber and talk to them about clinical trials.  It’s not very likely Steve will do a trail, but we at least want to talk to them about it. 2.  Steve will continue on the chemo he is on right now for 6 weeks…

Today is Steve’s 17th chemo treatment.  It’s been a while since I’ve updated and I’m sorry about that.  Steve’s been bugging me to post an update but I’ve been busy shoveling snow, ice, snow again, then more snow and then even more snow, then I got up this morning and shovel MORE snow!!! You get the picture. I want to apologize because this snow is all my fault.  I think that mother nature is trying to see how far she can push me before I go over the edge.  I’m sorry to take you all on the ride with me.  Hopefully she’s satisfied and will stop. So how is Steve doing?  Steve started a new chemo to replace the Oxaliplatin.  For those of you that…

Last week was great.  Steve went to work, no doctor’s appointments, the girls fought like normal, I felt anxious about the girls fighting and Max pooped in the house.  It was a normal week and it felt good. I think we needed that break from “cancer”.   Just to realize that we are all still here and need to move along as normal as we can.  It was nice.  It recharged us for another week of Chemo.  Dr. Sam told us that we “can’t change what is happening to Steve.  We can only live each day as best as we can so we have no regrets.”  And he is right.  And while it’s hard to think that way every second of every day, we try…