God is Good

We just sat down with Dr Gounder, who had already reviewed my CT scan from yesterday. As you'll recall, at this early stage in the treatment, there was a possibility we'd see continue tumor growth, that we'd see the tumors holding stable, or that we'd see shrinkage. Where we went from there would have depended on how things looked.

The tumors in my soft tissue have remained completely stable for the past 2 months. Considering the extremely aggressive rate of growth we were seeing before I started chemo, two months unchanged is a very conclusive sign that this treatment is working. Even more amazing, the lesions in my bones have already begun to heal. I had hope of this, because my back pain has been reducing radically in the past week or two, and the scan confirmed it.

And of course, the very best news of all, is that there are absolutely no new sites or tumors. The cancer has ceased to spread.

All of my other labs continue to show that my body is tolerating the treatment extremely well.

So now we continue on the current regiment, and Dr Gounder is hopeful that soon we will begin to see shrinkage in the soft tissue tumors as well.

God is good. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. This has been a nerve wracking couple of months, but it has been worth it.

I love you all.

Counting Down

Only a couple days left til we head up to NYC for our next appointment.  Overall, I feel pretty good.  I still have a little bit of nagging back pain, but I think it's significantly better than it was.  My energy level is good.  I'm still having some taste disturbances- frequently it's salt, but sometimes random foods just taste weird.

We drive up on Sunday morning, Sunday afternoon I have a CT scan.  Monday I have all my regular appointments, followed by a PET scan.  Somewhere in there I believe they're planning to give me a dose of Superman Bone Juice as well.  So unfortunately I will probably be a little sore when I get home.  We sit down with Dr Gounder before my PET scan, so I don't know if he'll get all the info he needs from the CT scan, or if we'll be in touch with him again after the PET scan as well.  We're not coming home until Tuesday, but most likely I will write out a full update on Monday night when we get back to the hotel.

Almost There

Had a good follow-up this morning.  Blood work, EKG, and other labs all look normal.  Now we wait those last 2 weeks to get the scans done and see where we're at.  Dr Gounder reminded us that the scans are not definitive one way or the other, but just a way to gauge our progress and then we'll sit down to make decisions.  If my tumors have grown but are still not causing any immediate danger, and I still feel physically well, we will probably be able to continue the drug.  If anything has shrunk or even just held steady, it will of course be a much more encouraging sign.  Right now I still feel good.  I had some really bad back pain, which subsided last week.  The past couple days have been rough, but I think it's mostly because I overdid it at the horse show, and then spent nearly 10 hours in a car over a 48 hour period.  Hopefully it will calm down again.  And the rest of me feels fine- eating well, breathing well, etc.  So, fingers crossed.

In other news, I now have a nice crop of stubble on my head, and my eyelashes and brows have finally started to come in.  In a few weeks I'll look like a non-cancer patient for a change.  :-P  And who knows- maybe we'll find out that I'm well on the way to being a non-cancer patient.

Cheers!