2nd Chemo Treatment

Today was chemo treatment #2. Dr. Bowers was quite pleased to hear that Ed has had no serious side effects from the chemo (no nausea or diarrhea). Of course, we have heard that it gets worse after the 2nd or 3rd treatment, but Dr. Bowers says he thinks Ed will be fine. If he doesn't have any bad side effects yet, he won't. I guess time will tell who's right! I'm putting my money with Dr. Bowers--he's a smart man (in my honest opinion)!

The good news is that it appears Ed's liver has shrunk. From an external measurement, Dr. Bowers measured 10 cm down from 14 cm two weeks ago. This is very good news that after one treatment, we seem to be seeing a response. Yeah!

For today's chemotherapy, though, Ed only got the Irinotecan and no Avastin. Avastin can cause bleeding and since he has surgery next week for the port, we skipped the Avastin this week. Dr. Bowers did offer an alternative that Ed is genetically eligible for--Cetuximab. The downside with this agent is development of a rash. We both agreed (us and Dr. Bowers) that since the Avastin seems to working well, we wouldn't switch at this point and save the use for Cetuximab if we need it. Skipping Avastin for this round would be okay.

Ed will start the next round of Xeloda tomorrow as well. We continue to monitor and manage the minimal side effects he's dealing with. As Ed even pointed out, every little ache, pain, twinge is magnified right now so we try to monitor and manage each accordingly.

Today I asked Dr. Bowers about CEA counts--I come across this alot when reading about colon cancer online. It stands for Carcinoembryonic Antigen. CEA is a protein found in many types of cancer cells. A rising CEA may indicate a cancer is growing while a falling CEA may suggest a cancer is responding to treatment. Notice the "may"--it "may indicate" this or that. It doesn't always tell the full story but it's one piece of information. Right now, because Dr. Bowers can evaluate the size of the liver externally, he doesn't check CEA count every visit, but will do so further into the treatment. He did indicate that Ed's CEA count initially was over 300. If you read anything about this, "normal" is something 0-3 or 0-5. So I'm hoping when Dr. Bowers does future testing, this number will go down. And anyone who knows me, knows I need these numbers--something tangible and measurable. This is why I had to see the CT scan for myself as well. That's my job, though, right?

So life continues to march on and we continue to move forward looking forward to ringing in the new year with Dan and his girlfriend, Cassie. Next week on Tuesday we have the port surgery and the following week we have our next chemo session (every 2 weeks).

I thank everyone for your ongoing support and prayers. Please keep the prayers coming.