Back Surgery is Scheduled for Today

Today Steve and I saw the doctor and received the results from his CT Scan on Friday, his Bone Scan on Monday and his CEA blood work.   The CEA is 17 right now… it was 12.  It is slowly rising but not a huge jump in a month.  The bone scan showed some new “Spots” on his spine but nothing big that can be measured.   The CT Scan showed his tumors for the most part are “stable”.  The doctor thinks the CEA rising is due to the new spots on his spine. What the doctor doesn’t know is if the chemo Steve is on right now is slowing down the growth or not working at all and the growth is just slow.  That’s impossible to…

So for those of you that know Steve well, you know that he isn’t big on fruits and veggies.  He’s a meat and potatoes kind of guy (which also means low fiber – not good for the colon I’ve learned). However, when he first found out about the cancer, he vowed to do whatever he can to get his body healthy again and that included eating fruits and veggies if needed. While visiting with the Oncologist last week, he went over side effects of the chemo and asked us if we had any questions.  Steve asked him if he should avoid any foods or eat certain foods to help repair the damage that the chemo will be doing to his body. I swear Steve had…

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. …

Steve’s surgery last week was a success.  The spine surgeons were able to remove the tumors that were compressing Steve’s spinal cord without having to insert the titanium rods.  His bones were surprisingly strong.  They did insert a little cement into the spine where they removed the tumors, just to give it a little more strength. Because they didn’t have to insert the rods, the recovery was much easier.  Steve was up walking around the following day and then doing the stairs a day later. Two days after his surgery, his heart rate was still high – it was running 115-120.   Come to find out it was because he has a blood clot in his lungs.  He was at a high risk for getting one,…

I  forgot to mention in my previous post that the CT Scan also showed that the inflammation of his colon and the small perforation in the colon that they saw last time, is no longer visible.  So that means that part healed.  That made us VERY HAPPY because that means surgery is not in the future again… which is a good thing.  Surgery is not something we want because that means no chemo for at least 6 weeks after and perhaps even more.  Right now Chemo is what he needs. That was my Christmas Gift! 

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…