Shots for Steve

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…

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…

Friday (6/27) Steve completed his first round of Chemo.  He was so happy to have the visiting nurse remove the IV and he was excited to take a nice long shower.  Something he can’t do while hooked up to Chemo. He is doing well.  Just very tired.  Having the surgery in the same week as starting chemo, was very hard.  He’s sore from ‘babying’ his right side (where the port was put in) and hopes that the next round he’ll be more comfortable with the IV in. As for side effects from Chemo, they were very minor.  He didn’t get nauseous (thankfully!), he was very tired, his taste buds were off a bit, and he didn’t seem to have much of an appetite (which we…

Steve finished his 7th round of Chemo last Friday and it went well.  He started eating more as his mouth sores healed and had a generally good weekend. I just heard from the doctor and he said the surgeon doesn’t think that there is any need to worry about what they saw in the CT scan and they are leaving his colon as it is.  They will just keep an eye on how he’s feeling and if he starts to have any problems. We are relieved because surgery means no chemo and we are not ready to stop because the tumors are still there. This past round of chemo the doctor reduced one of the meds to hopefully stop the mouth sores from coming back….

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…

This morning I did the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I said good bye to my husband Steve. He peacefully passed away at 6:20 am and is no longer suffering. His soul is free from cancer, so he won! Thank you all so much for your prayers, friendship and love over these past 2+ years. Steve’s Obituary