Author: Karen

Steve had an appointment this week with his oncologist to go over his blood work and his CEA number is 12 right now… it was 11 last month. That’s GOOD! No big jump. So chemo will stay the same for another month (2 treatments).  The doctor scheduled a CT Scan and a Bone Scan the beginning of March before we see him again. If there is a 20% increase or there are new tumors, he’ll switch his chemo to the Oxiliplatian (for 6 months), if not then he’ll stay as he is for another month. That being said, it was a good appointment because he can keep going with this chemo for another month.  So we bought another month! In the meantime, we are going…

Today Steve and I went to Dana Faber to meet with a research doctor in Gastrointestinal Cancers to talk about possible clinical trials.  We did our research and talked with Steve’s Oncologist in Warwick beforehand and we were pretty sure there wasn’t anything that Steve qualified for so we weren’t expecting much.  But figured a ride there wouldn’t hurt. And it didn’t hurt, nor did it help. We were correct.  There is nothing right now for Steve’s specific cancer and mutation of his cancer.  However, the doctor did offer to test Steve’s original biopsy sample to see if it has a specific mutation that it wasn’t tested for back in June 2014.  While the doctor doesn’t think Steve’s cancer has this mutation according to other…

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…

I knew it had been a while since I updated this site, but I didn’t realize it had been 6 months!  The reason I haven’t updated in the past 6 months is there hasn’t really been a significant change….. which isn’t a bad thing when you are stage 4! This past week, Steve had his last follow up for the year so I thought it was a good time to share how he’s doing. His CEA number is holding at 11, which is low and good.  He had a bone scan earlier this month because he was having some back pain and his last scan still showed a spot on his vertebrae.  I won’t lie, this scared me.   I was more worried than Steve was. …

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…