Results of the November CT scan

On Monday morning we had another exciting meeting with a doctor at the hospital. For the first time after my diagnosis we met a doctor we have met once before. He's a very nice guy and also very knowlegdable in his field. He is actually this one doctor that attended the Nordic conference in September. I was a bit nervous again when walking into his office. Was the fact that they had scheduled me for meeting this particular doctor a good or a bad sign?

He started off quickly saying the results of the scan were good and that the tumours in the liver and in the surrounding lymph nodes had shrunk further compared to the scan in September. This means the drugs I'm on are still effective and will be continued for three more rounds until next CT scan in January. Mr. Big was now down to 7,2 cm x 5,0 cm compared to 8 cm x 5,2 cm in September. I was at first a bit dissapointed hearing the measures as I expected the shrinkage to be much more, especially taking into account the dramatic drop in the CEA value. When we discussed more about this I realised it is not that straightforward as that of course. Our understanding about what he explained is that the bigger tumours in the liver have more connective tissue in them, supporting the structure of the tumour. These are not cancer cells so they won't be destroyed by chemo. The doctor, anyway, emphasized not to worry to much about the measures but focus on the direction which is still good. I figured I should maybe be happy with this as the doctor said these are good news. I may write more details about the discussion and CT results later.

I spent the next four and a half hours in a hospital bed getting the seventh round of IV. They're putting the drugs in faster now. There was a guy in the neighbour bed who was starting his third round. I felt like a senior "drug addict".

Winter has come to Tampere. Lots of snow and exciting days for the kids. We've been on skis and sledge every day.