Second Round of Chemo is Done!

Steve is going this morning for his first CT Scan.  We are pretty hopeful that it will look good because of how good his CEA number has been.  But seeing it will be good to reassure us that the Chemo is working. He will also have is CEA number checked on Monday.  We will have the results of both of those tests on Tuesday when we meet with his Oncologist. Steve has been getting mouth sores the last 3 cycles and they are unbearable for him.  We’ve been trying all sorts of ways to make them better and possibly avoid them but after talking to the doctor yesterday, we are thinking of pulling back on one of the Chemotherapy drugs a little bit.  There is…

We’ve been asked over and over if there were any signs or symptoms of Colon Cancer that we could have noticed? I asked the doctor how long this has been going on, for it to be at Stage 4 without really any warnings.  He said the polyp could have been there for years.  SCARY. A lot of people have asked us if Steve had any signs or symptoms.  According to Cancer.org the signs and symptoms of Colon Cancer are: A change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation, or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days A feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that is not relieved by doing so Rectal bleeding, dark stools, or blood in…

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…

On June 17, 2014  Steve had his first Colonoscopy.   Thankfully the prep for it wasn’t too bad on him.  The doctor wasn’t expecting to find the tumor because he looked at all the scans beforehand and even he saw nothing in the colon.  So he was pretty curious as to what he’d see.  And so were we.  I was actually wondering if there might not even be a tumor and this would be a rare type of colon cancer.   My husband would be the one to not have something easily found.   Because he likes to be ‘different’. Well, that wasn’t the case.  The doctor did find the tumor and it’s big.  The mass is in the sigmoid colon.  He said it’s pretty much the entire…

Last week, Steve had a new Bone Scan and CT Scan so the doctor had a baseline before we start the next chemo.  I was curious to see how much growth there would be without him having chemo for 4 weeks (2 treatments). We saw the doctor yesterday and the CT Scan showed some more growth in the lungs.  Not a lot, but more.  The bone scan confirmed what the last CT Scan said – and there are now 2 spots on his spine, but we already knew that.  There is also a little bit more growth in his stomach on the omentum. Not a lot, so that means the cancer is moving slowly.  It also pretty much confirmed that the chemo hasn’t really been…