Round six

I was in at hospital again today to start the sixth round of treatments. We had first the doctor's appointment in the morning. Again, a new doctor. We went through the blood values as usual. They were all fine, some slightly outside the range but still normal for cancer patients. There was a surprise. The value of the CEA marker had dropped from 3482.0 at the end of August to 228.3! That's pretty good news. The doctor wouldn't speculate what this means for the size of the tumours. The next CT scan is scheduled in three weeks and will tell the facts. The CT scan will be a routine full body scan to check if there's any cancer elsewhere than in the stomach region.

We discussed about future treatment alternatives. Nothing can be decided before the CT scan. Surgery could be an alternative but for surgery the tumours in the liver must be small enough and their position in the liver must be suitable for surgery. Doctors also seem to be reluctant to do surgery if there is cancer outside of the liver, e.g. in lymph nodes. So I am not a candidate for surgery yet. Continuing with chemotherapy is possible and more likely in this phase. The chemotherapy I'm on now will at some point of time loose its effect but exactly when is very individual and cannot be predicted. The doctor said some people have been on the same chemotherapy treatment for years. If the chemotherapy treatment has to be changed there are at least four to five other medicines on the market that could be used instead. Different kinds of radiotherapy could also be used in combination with other treatments, e.g. surgery.

The IV chemo took some five hours. On my way home I stopped by in a café close by to briefly celebrate that great CEA value. I ordered tea and a cake with some orange icing. Then rushed to day care to pick up the kids.