Amazing Journey

Just a week ago, my right side was giving me bad pain, my feet hurt so bad that I had to use two canes and even then had to try to walk on the instep of the foot as much as possible, and my BMs burned something fierce. After they "done did ripped my guts out" on Saturday morning all of those symptoms have disappeared. My onc, nurses and occupational therapist have all commented that I look much better and the expression of constant pain is gone from my face. I was also concerned that my CEA had jumped over six weeks from 216 to 444 and according to the CT Scan on Friday, the tumors in my liver have indeed grown by a small amount I spoke with my onc today and he's going to try to get an auth from the insurance company to start me on Zaltrap along with the Vectibix.

I'm going to call my patient navigator at my insurance company tomorrow and ask her to do what she can to get the auth to go through. I'm also going to see if she can try to get the company to stop locking horns with my onc when he puts in a quarterly request for a PET. Without the scan in August, I have no idea how long or how sick I would have become before the pneumonia was dx'd. And the I'd still have appendicitis getting worse every day if it had been for the CT on Friday. It's not an exaggeration to say that either one of those could easily have proven fatal lacking those scans. In both incidents, I did not have what I thought were classic symptoms. I'm even joking now that if I have a heart attack I'll probably have the symptoms manifest as an ingrown toenail!

I want to add somethings that happened this morning. When I walked into the cancer center for my appointment this morning one of the receptionists said, "Ray, what are you doing up and a bout?" I replied "I gots to have my drugs, baby! I needs my fix!" Then the onc told me that the infusion team was asking if my treatment was going to be cancelled today and he told them, "anyone but Ray I'd say yes."

Thanks and God Bless you all for your prayers and good thoughts!

Ray/Doc

Comments

  • steveandnat
    steveandnat Member Posts: 886
    Crazy ride
    As I still lay here in the hospital for over a week I marvel what a crazy ride this cancer journey is. I will be courteous how you will do with Zaltrap. I've had two treatments with it and the onc still needs to find the correct mixture. Glad to hear your looking and feeling better right now. Pray stays that way. Jeff
  • Doc_Hawk
    Doc_Hawk Member Posts: 685

    Crazy ride
    As I still lay here in the hospital for over a week I marvel what a crazy ride this cancer journey is. I will be courteous how you will do with Zaltrap. I've had two treatments with it and the onc still needs to find the correct mixture. Glad to hear your looking and feeling better right now. Pray stays that way. Jeff

    Glad to hear from you Jeff
    I've been worried about you and you've been on my mind a lot. How are you doing and what have your docs said about your condition and treatment?
  • swimmer22
    swimmer22 Member Posts: 60
    Doc_Hawk said:

    Glad to hear from you Jeff
    I've been worried about you and you've been on my mind a lot. How are you doing and what have your docs said about your condition and treatment?

    Hang in there..
    Keep your spirits up buddy-- your attitude is an inspiration to everyone facing this terrible disease
  • wolfen
    wolfen Member Posts: 1,324 Member
    swimmer22 said:

    Hang in there..
    Keep your spirits up buddy-- your attitude is an inspiration to everyone facing this terrible disease

    Doc
    Looking Good, Looking Good!

    Luv Ya,

    Wolfen
  • YoVita
    YoVita Member Posts: 590 Member
    Glad to hear that the pain is gone
    and hope you get the medicine you need.
  • Varmint5
    Varmint5 Member Posts: 384 Member
    Ray and Jeff
    You both have such great attitudes! I hope you both have improvements in every area soon.

    Sandy
  • Doc_Hawk
    Doc_Hawk Member Posts: 685
    A numbers game
    I just got my CEA and magnesium counts from yesterday. The CEA dropped from 444 to 372 and magnesium jumped up 1.4, almost normal! I gotta say that I'm pretty happy about those numbers! Woohoo!
  • k44454445
    k44454445 Member Posts: 494
    ins
    ins co can be very difficult to deal with. they want to hold onto their money as long as possible. glad you are getting better! you are a very tough guy!!!
    hugs & prayers
    judy
  • Lovekitties
    Lovekitties Member Posts: 3,364 Member
    Doc_Hawk said:

    A numbers game
    I just got my CEA and magnesium counts from yesterday. The CEA dropped from 444 to 372 and magnesium jumped up 1.4, almost normal! I gotta say that I'm pretty happy about those numbers! Woohoo!

    Dear Doc
    So very happy to hear you got those numbers going in the right direction!

    Keep it going and keep on being happy.

    Hugs,

    Marie who loves kitties
  • Calluna
    Calluna Member Posts: 7
    Doc_Hawk said:

    A numbers game
    I just got my CEA and magnesium counts from yesterday. The CEA dropped from 444 to 372 and magnesium jumped up 1.4, almost normal! I gotta say that I'm pretty happy about those numbers! Woohoo!

    Yay!
    That's awesome! My bet is that your appendicitis caused a good portion of the jump in your CEA - inflammation can do it, and appendicitis is a perfect example. (Anything ending in -itis literally means "inflammation of.."!) Glad to hear you're feeling so much better :)