Second Round of Chemo is Done!

We saw our 2nd opinion doctor today who is the best in RI and came HIGHLY recommended by many.  He agreed with our current Oncologist and thinks this chemo regimen is really the best way to start.  And then see what happens in 2-3 months when they do the first scan.  At that point he said if it isn’t working, we should think about something else.  He’d be more than happy to talk with us then but sees no reason to do anything else right now. Knowing he feels the same way makes us even more confident that this is the best thing for Steve.  And we really like our current Oncologist so we’ll be staying with him.  However, our 2nd opinion doctor also said…

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…

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…

Tomorrow will be Steve’s 12th Chemo treatment and his last one for this 6 month set.  We thought 6 months actually went till January but nope, it’s done tomorrow.  But that just means it’s time to change it up a bit. Currently Steve is receiving the FOLFOX cocktail of chemotherapy which consists of 5-FU, Leucovorin, and Oxaliplatin.  I am slowly learning about each of these drugs.  The 5-FU is the one that was causing the mouth sores and is also the one that he gets on a slow drip for the 48 hours at home.  You may recall that in October he reduced that one by 15% to hopefully stop the mouth sores – and it worked!  We’ve checked his CEA number once since the…

Steve finished his 4th round of chemo today.  He feels this one went the best so far.  However, the tingling in his fingers from the cold came much faster this time.  Almost immediately when he got home on Wednesday. But other than that it went well.  He still feels fine, he even had more of an appetite than he has the last few times so that’s good! Four down, many more to go! Next time the doctor will check his CEA number again – the tumor marker number.  We are hoping it’s lower again.  He said mid September he’ll send him for a scan to actually see where the tumors are now or more importantly where they are not!  We are looking forward to that. …