CEA Number Update

I remember the night my husband died as if it was yesterday, but really it was 5 months ago that I would wake in the middle of the night to hear him mumble for the last time “I love you too”. Friday, November 4, 2016 Steve was transported to the Hospice home in Providence, RI.  We (Mark and I) wanted him to go the day before, but he told us he didn’t think he was ready and wanted one more night.  When he was placed on hospice less than two weeks earlier, we discussed that he would be transferred to the home before he died.  We didn’t want him to die at home. Friday morning we got up and started getting him ready for the…

This week Steve completed his 5th round of chemo and he’s still doing really well. The tingling in his fingers started almost immediately when he touched anything cold.  Even when he washes his hands, if the water is a little cold, they start to tingle.  Or when he got up at the infusion center to use the men’s room, he has to push the IV to the bathroom.  The handle on it is metal and it’s so cold inside the infusion center, that the handle gets cold.  So even that bothered him.  It’s extremely irritating and he gets very frustrated with it.  Even though he knows in the whole scheme of things, it’s not the worst thing, it’s still pretty irritating. I remember before I…

Today is a new day, and a day to look back and reflect on the year. A friend wrote something that inspired me and made me look at 2016 differently. My husband died, that was absolutely the worst thing that has ever happened to me. But I’ve grown so much through that, and I like who I am today. 2016 was a GIFT and I am thankful for that. I had Steve by my side for almost all of it…. that was not something we knew we would have back in June 2014. Friends I’ve known for a long time and a shorter time came together and became friends. And all my friendships grew, tremendously! I learned from my friends and family what it means…

Steve starts radiation today.  He’ll have 10 treatments, Monday-Friday, to keep the tumors that they just removed in surgery, from growing back quickly and compress his spine again. He definitely doesn’t want to have that happen again. He had a CT Scan earlier this week to set up the radiation and the table he had to lay on was very hard so he was in a lot of pain afterwards.  It’s not the same pain as before the surgery but a different area and different type of pain.  But pain is pain. We’ve been spending all our time together since he can’t really go anywhere on his own.  It’s actually been pretty nice because it’s been quality time.  He seems more relaxed about the whole…

A week ago Wednesday, Steve’s doctor ordered an MRI to get a better look at his spine and the tumors to see if Radiation would be good or not.  When the radiologist read the MRI he contacted Steve’s doctor and suggested that Steve go to the hospital immediately to have the spine doctors look at the MRI.  The concern was that the tumors were too close to his spinal cord and they were afraid of paralysis. So at 10pm last Wednesday night, Steve and I headed to Rhode Island hospital where they gave him a steroid to relieve some of the swelling around the spinal cord to avoid the compression.  The spine doctors then looked at the MRI and decided that with the steroid, there…

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…