A Lot of Nothing

I have a lot to report but none of it amounts to very much. I had a chemo treatment this week with the accompanying blood tests. The liver enzymes are still fluctuating, some up, some down. In general I’d have to say they’ve stabilized. Dr. Nosher’s, the doctor who did the SIR Spheres, assistant Donna said that the most important liver function measure is the bilirubin count. My bilirubin count has been within normal range all along so that’s good. Not so good is the CEA count which measures tumor activity. It went up again. It’s now at 57.5 which is just about where it was when we started this FOLFOX chemo regimen. Dr. George said it’s time to change the regimen but she’s having trouble finding a suitable one. In other words we’re running out of options. I took it upon myself to see a radiation oncologist, Dr. Cann. I was looking into the possibility of external beam radiation to my liver and possibly my lungs. Dr. Cann said that what’s going on in my lungs is very minor and did not recommend doing anything there at this time. He said he could radiate the tumor on my liver but the liver moves when a person breathes. The means they would have to radiate with a margin to may sure they got the tumor. That increases the risk of damaging good liver tissue. He recommended pursuing other possibilities for now and keeping this as a less desirable option. I also took it upon myself to again contact the Cancer Institute of NJ to explore the possibility of some kind of ablation to the liver, probably Radiofrequency Ablation or RFA. This involve inserting an instrument to the liver that thermally burns the tumor. I have not yet gotten to the right person to set up a consultation for this. In the meantime the wheels are in motion for a re-treatment with SIR Spheres. That cannot be done however until the middle of November because they have to wait six months from the last treatment. Yesterday I attended a full day continuing education seminar to maintain my real estate instructor’s license. I’m not sure why I did because I’ll probably never teach again. But I had a yearning to do it. I think I just want to make sure I die with credentials. One very good thing came from it. I saw my brother Tim. I knew he would be there. Maybe that explains my yearning. We agreed to have lunch together soon and that’s a beautiful thing. Not much to be encouraged about here but I still have some fight left in me. Carry on. -------------------------------------------------------------------