One Week of Chemo To Go

As the title of the post says, I have one week of chemo left. Tomorrow (Monday) I will get my last infusion of Oxiliplatin. This is one thing I both dread and look forward to. Dread, because of the pain, and the side effects. The reason I look forward to it is because it is the last infusion, and I'll be glad when it is over and done with.

As you may know, I am taking two types of chemo. Oxiliplatin is one, and Xeloda is the other. Xeloda is taken orally in pill form. I take 3 in the morning and 3 at night. The last day I will have to take Xeloda is next Sunday (Feb 22), which will also be our 17th wedding anniversary. It's pretty safe to say I won't be up for much celebration, so we'll have to wait until some of the side effects start to wear off.

As one of the latest posts Roni made, we need my platelets to be high enough so that I can get the infusion tomorrow, so we seek your prayers that my blood levels will be good enough for the chemo treatment.

I also want to update you on my tumor markers that were taken during my last chemo infusion. After three rounds of chemo, my CEA dropped from 28.9 to 15.7. After the fourth round, it went back up to 16.5. Not a big increase, and my oncologist didn't seem that concerned. The normal range should be between 0 and 2.5, so it still has a ways to go. We're praying that the blood test taken tomorrow, will show another decrease. My oncologist also said that the chemo will probably continue working for up to a month after the treatment, so hopefully, the CEA will continue to drop.

So, what can we expect after the chemo is over? There are a couple of scenarios. The first week in March, I will get another PET/CT scan to see if the lymph nodes near the tumor "lights" up. If it does, that means that the tumor is still active, which will most likely mean another surgery. Because I will have to wait at least a month after chemo, the surgery won't take place any sooner than March 23rd. If the lymph nodes do not "light" up, that could mean that we just go back to watching and waiting. After the PET/CT scan, we'll meet with our specialist to see what he recommends.

We continue to both seek, and appreciate your prayers and thoughts as we continue this journey.

Kevin