Upcoming

Next Chemo sched is 31 Dec.
CatScan Pet Scan on 2 Jan.
Should be interesting...

Christmas Eve

Cancer isn't taking a holiday. Natalie and Dennis headed to Miami very early this morning for Dennis's Doctor's appointment and chemotherapy. CEA tumor marker is down to 118! This is such a relief after last week's slight increase! I am hoping they will be home in the early evening for some celebrating! Merry Christmas and much love to all.

Session 7 on Dec 11
saw a further reduction on my blood work
cancer markers. from 179 to 131. remember
it was 660 in October...........

Session #8 Dec 18; last of this series, blood markers
for cancer went up from 131 to 142 a increase
of 11............ increase isn't good.. Dr said other
markers are good so don't put too much in any
one indicator. Session 8 went OK, Brian drove
and stayed with me all day at the MIA hospital.


Session #9 (I thought only 8 sessions??) is scheduled for
December 24th. and then cat scan on 2 January
to see were we are with liver tumor............
More info forthcoming when cat scan read
on 5 January. Have a good Holiday....DW

Continued Progress

We completed #6 of 8 treatments in Miami yesterday.We received information today from the Dr that the tumor marker dropped further to 131 after treatment #5! (from start of 666)
When pressing the Dr. to what he thinks..."we'll see what the scans show". We'll be taking scans week of 22 December and probably won't have results until the following week due to the holidays. We believe this combination of chemo is working for Dennis and he looks and seems so much better! Thank you for your continued prayers!

Nov 26, session #5 the blood markers were
down to 218! a futher reduction, which is
a very good thing. This number is from
the blood tested on 20 november.
These blood markers: I have to get it down to
3 or below 5 . SO ..... I've a way to go.
Tomorrow, Dec 4th I'll be in MIA for session
#6, and find out markers taken on 11/26
at session #5.
Hopefully there willl be a futher reduction,
indicatiing this Chemo cocktail is working.
More info tomorrow.. Denny

A little good news perhaps!

We completed treatment #3 of 8 chemotherapies for this third line of treatment yesterday in Miami. The home infusion option was quickly denied by insurance after one visit and honestly I'm more comfortable to travel to Miami each week and keep close contact with Dr. Ardalan at this point. It is a one day treatment and doesn't require an overnight stay in the hospital.
We received a call from the Drs this morning at 0815-my first thought-oh no...but they called to give a some promising news that the tumor marker had dropped from 666 to 325 after 2 treatments. Normal is 3.0 so we have a LONG way to go but we are going down and this is a very good indicator that these drugs are working for Dennis.
Dennis has some new bad side effects from these drugs. A horrible red acne like rash on his face,neck,chest and back. We got 2 prescriptions yesterday that should help manage these side effects. He is still dealing with fatigue but he has amazing energy and a positive outlook. His hair is growing slowly back and is soft and very fine.
Please keep praying that #3 is a charm. It's been a LONG 6months and we need continued good news!

I'm in Week 2 of Plan "C". Blood markers
are much improved, the Chemo seems
to be working. Won't really know untill
pictures are taken of the cancer, but
this is a positive note: blood markers and
side effects are positve since I started "C".
#1 side effect of this
new Chemo is a bad case of
Acne and I've started the acne.
Now if I can only get the rest of a
the 'teen' problems I'll be happy.
The Next chemical loading is scheduled for
Thursday 13 Nov and is treatment #3.
I've 8 treaments, and that will leave
5 sessions to go. I'm tied to the
chemo sessions on Plan "C" and will
have to stay close to home untill
the program has run it's course.