4th Round of Chemo AND a hair cut

We got some good news today.  Steve’s CEA (tumor marker) number is going down again.   It’s currently 18 and was 28 four weeks ago!  That’s really good news because that means that the new chemo he started 6 weeks ago is working!!!  So the plan right now is to keep doing what they are doing. Steve is also scheduled for a CT Scan the first week of April – the 2nd or 3rd and then they will check his CEA number again on the 6th when we get the results for the CT Scan. Last week was 9 months since Steve was diagnosis and the fact that he’s still doing well and the chemo is still working at this point is really good! Friday, March…

Steve had his 8th round of chemo this week and he’s pretty happy it’s over because he has a break and won’t be back to the infusion center for 4 weeks. Why the break?  He needed it for so many reasons and without it, going forward would have been way too hard. First of all, his CEA number is down to 11.  So that’s GREAT!  So if he’s going to take a break, now is a good time to do it since the number is still going down and the chemo is still working. But the real reason for the break is because he needs it physically and mentally.  Even with the reduction in the 5-FU, he’s still getting the mouth sores, but not as…

Today we saw the Oncologist again with an update on Steve’s CEA Number.   And we got some really good news! Steve’s CEA (tumor marker number) is down to 64!!!  On June 4th it was 536.  Then a few weeks later it was up to 834.8. Four weeks ago it was down to 263.1.   And today it’s 64!!! The doctor said not all cancers can measure the tumors with this marker, but Colon Cancer is one of them so this does tell us that the tumors are shrinking.  But we can tell as well because of some little differences that we see that I’ve mentioned before.  (His dry cough is gone and his night sweats are gone for the most part and his bowels are better. …

Steve saw his Oncologist today and his CEA is still going up, slowly but it’s going up.  Today it was 20.  In March it was 17 and in February it was 12.  So it’s moving up but that’s not the direction the doctor wants to see it go.  That means the cancer is also growing.  So it’s time to change chemo treatments. We are going on another family trip this month, this time out to California to Disneyland!!  The girls are VERY excited.  The doctor is going to wait until after our trip to change his chemo.  Tomorrow will be his last one on this type of chemo and then he’ll take a break so he’ll feel great on our trip. It’ll actually be a…

Steve finished his 7th round of Chemo last Friday and it went well.  He started eating more as his mouth sores healed and had a generally good weekend. I just heard from the doctor and he said the surgeon doesn’t think that there is any need to worry about what they saw in the CT scan and they are leaving his colon as it is.  They will just keep an eye on how he’s feeling and if he starts to have any problems. We are relieved because surgery means no chemo and we are not ready to stop because the tumors are still there. This past round of chemo the doctor reduced one of the meds to hopefully stop the mouth sores from coming back….

A year ago today Steve and I sat at chemo for his “New Year’s Chemo”. I was grateful to have him for another year. After the new year we found out that chemo would end in the fall. The doctor estimated (at that time) he would probably have about 4-6 months after chemo ended. Of course that was without knowing how the last 6 months of chemo would work. He was being optimistic. When Steve and I talked about that, we figured we’d get through the holidays, have another new year’s eve together and then sometime in 2017, he’d pass away. Of course we didn’t know for sure, but we were being optimistic. From the day that we found out he was stage 4, I…