The Plan

When I started down this chemotherapy road in July I didn't ask the doctor what the overall plan was. That's uncharacteristic of me. I guess since I was told that I'm now considered "incurable" I didn't want to hear the answer. Perhaps I thought that I'd be on non-stop chemotherapy of one kind or another until it stops working altogether. Or perhaps I assumed that he didn't have a plan and would have to make it up as he went along. Anyway, I didn't ask. Well, when this most recent PET scan was done and the radiologist again declared that I'm in remission I thought maybe I should ask the oncologist what his plan is. I learned he had one all along, or at least the beginnings of one.

He said that what he was originally planning on doing was four rounds of chemo, followed by a scan. I suspect he would have made adjustments to the drugs depending on how effective they appear to be. Then he would do four more rounds of chemo and then another scan. Perhaps he would have kept repeating that scenario until it didn't make any sense anymore. What he didn't expect was that the scan would show that the tumors are no longer visible. He told me that just in case the chemotherapy has knocked them down to just below the detectable limits of the scan he doesn't want to stop the treatments just yet. If they are still there then it's better to kick them while they are down rather than let them gather strength and rebound. So, he wants me to do four more rounds of chemotherapy since that scan was done and then he will re-scan me as planned, but this time we won't be shocked when we don't see anything. And that's a good thing. I think originally he would have had me do at least twelve rounds of chemo but he may have me stop at eight and then keep an eye on things as usual. I've already done round number five so I'll do three more and then see how things look. At that time we may stop the drugs and start them again if and when it becomes necessary to do so. They aren't causing me any side effects so I don't mind taking them but I'm sure he won't want me to take them unnecessarily since they probably are having some sort of toxic effect on my body and also he doesn't want to encourage the tumor cells to develop a resistance to something that is clearly working so well at the moment.

I'm just thankful that at the moment it's all working so well and I am going to be left relatively healthy and strong for a while longer.

PET Scan Results From 9/14/2011

YAY!!! Join me while I do a happy dance!! Focus on the "Impression" on page 2.

1.9 CEA

Yesterday I had my bi-weekly CEA blood test and it has declined further, to 1.9. This is great news. "Normal" levels are anything below 3.0 but my baseline CEA is <0.5, essentially undetectable. My CEA had declined to 0.7 this past January and then it started its climb up and I knew that it was just a matter of time before a scan detected new activity. It was 5.7 on July 7th, before I started this "maintenance" chemotherapy. I'm delighted to watch it decline.

The plan is to do another round of chemo next week and then do another scan shortly afterward to see what's going on. I've also been reading a fascinating book called Anticancer, written by a physician who himself battled brain cancer for 20 years (I just learned from that website that he died last month). So far I have learned that Japanese green tea has extraordinary cancer-fighting properties and so today David and I bought some high-quality green tea for me to drink three times a day. Also I will be learning to like salmon since the omega-3s that it provides fights cancer. Additionally I will try to switch to grass-fed beef and products from grass-fed cattle, organic eggs high in omega-3, and organic chicken. If you'd like to know why then read the book! It is truly eye-opening.