Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Well going into today's 3 month check, we knew that Mike was going to have to make some sort of decision on how to proceed with his fight against his cancer. Last week Mike had CEA blood testing for his appointment today with his oncologist, Dr. Wyshock. As we are able to get patient test results through a connection with our local hospital, we found out that Mike's CEA level had risen to 949.
Mike was advised that we had three options: to go back to his previous chemo regimen, go back to Germany, or do nothing, Mike told the doctor that going to Germany was not an option primarily I thought, because of the cost, I thought that maybe he could do to Germany by himself and maybe not have to stay for a full 3 weeks which would be cheaper. However, after we spoke, Mike made me realize that at this point in time, going to Germany would not help because of his higher level which made sense. When we initially went to Germany, Mike's CEA level was only 54. The three weeks there brought the level down to 5. Also, they will only do hyperthermia for 3 weeks at a time. Those 3 weeks would not be able to bring down the level enough in that amount of time,
Mike, therefore decided to repeat the chemo regimen again. He will again suffer with the same side effects of his treatment which include an electrical shock-like sensation in his hands, inability to touch anything cold, inability to eat anything cold, a pin prick sensation in his throat if he does eat anything cold or breathes in cold air, sensitivity all over his body to cold. He will start his treatments on Monday, March 3, 2014. He will be there all day for his "cocktail". He hopefully will not start feeling sick until Wednesday, and then hopefully will be feeling better for the weekend. He should then be good the whole next week until he returns for the next treatment 2 weeks later. It is going to be a little tougher this time due to the time of year that he is starting this because of the cold weather we are currently having. It was tough enough the last time when he started this in the warmer weather of April
The dr. then scheduled a CT scan for Friday, February 28th. This scan can then the compared to the last one Mike had done in July before we went to Germany. After leaving the oncologist's office, we both realized that the dr. did not tell us how many treatments Mike would require for this round. If things go the same, he will probably have 6 treatments over 12 weeks and then have testing again to see if there has been any change. We can then compare the last 2 tests and see if anything shrunk or if his CEA level was brought down.
I am hoping that Mike does not suffer too much with this round of treatment. He has been so regimented in the things he is doing to treat this horrible disease. There is no one more disciplined than he is. He is trying to do everything right for his body and then sees people who have no regard for what they are putting into and doing to their bodies. Please cherish the good health that you have and do not take it for granted.
I will keep you posted on how Mike progresses this time around. I wanted to thank everyone who has shown interest in this blog. Hopefully Mike has inspired others in searching out alternative measures and striving to do all you can to help take care of your body.
