Forgot to do the Update:

geotina

Before we left for a short vacation a couple weeks ago had a visit with the oncologist. No bad news to report. The maintenance chemo continues to be doing its job. From everything the doc saw on blood tests, etc. the cancer is not progressing, George remains stable, hopefully the mets are still continuing to be gone and/or shrinking, platelets, cbc, liver crap all looks very good. He has a few more rounds of this maintenance stuff and then we scan in about a month or so to see where we stand.

I did ask after the scan where do we go from there. Doc scratched his head and said he is not sure since George has had an excellent result from treatment so far if things are stable then a break from chemo is in order. I really don't like that answer to be honest. There are way too many Stage IV's that take a break and then wham, things go crazy. If he is talking 2 to 4 weeks ok, longer than that I tend to worry. I would like to get an opinion from the Karmanos Cancer Institute during the break I just need to get George on board with that. He is kinda like lets not rock the boat since treatment is working so well. Maybe I just need to nag a bit.

The doc did follow up with saying that he never sees this type of response to treatment with advanced Stage IV disease and lets wait for the scan, see what it shows, and take it from there.

So, all in all it was a very good report and visit.

Take care - Tina

sheri22

Glad chemo doing job
Tina I am glad chemo is working maybe if George wants to give chemo a break for awhile keep up on CEAS and other testing for a few moths/ take care and good luck to you bothe

Sheri22

idlehunters

sheri22 said:

Glad chemo doing job
Tina I am glad chemo is working maybe if George wants to give chemo a break for awhile keep up on CEAS and other testing for a few moths/ take care and good luck to you bothe

Sheri22

YAY!!!
Oh Tina.... this is great news!!! Being stage IV I just don't think it's safe to get off maintenance chemo and have nothing as a safeguard. When I had 2 stop for 2 1/2 months because of my broke back..... thats when things started growing and knocked me out of that NED status. It's just so hard to get it under control and then keeping it there is another story. I think you are very wise to be cautious. Give George a hug for me.... and a high five while you're at it...lol. You both take care.

Jennie

Sundanceh

Great, Tina!
Sounds like
Great, Tina!

Sounds like George has gone strictly by the numbers and it's worked. A couple of weeks break could be good for him if everyone agrees.

So much poison have to consume all the time - I can certainly understand about not wanting things to get away.

One of the reasons my guys are jumpin' now too, they want to get me on something as things have gone unchecked since the surgery left the cells in plain view. They want to get something in me until the rad plan is completed and then they blast away.

Sounds like a great report though!

Craig

AnneCan

Fantastic News!
Tina,

I am so happy for you + George. George seems to be the model chemo patient - it is working, he has been able to work, take vacations etc. Thanks so much for sharing this wonderful news - it gives me hope.

Erinb

HI
Hi Tina, What great news and response George has had. Hope you two had a nice vacation. My husband took a six week break and his CEA shot up, but he looks incredibly healthy. His face cleared up, his hair started growing back. Now it's back to chemo. What an awful disease. I think it is a wise decision to not take a long break too. We probably won't do that again unless needed.
Erin

CherylHutch

Good report!
Sounds like George is doing really well and responding well to his treatment plan.

But I'm from the other school... the one that believes everyone is different and no two people are going to respond the same to the same treatments. That is why oncologists will create a treatment plan that works for their patient. That is why we all aren't on the same treatments/plans

If a chemo treatment can get the disease stable, then I'm a firm believer that a break is in order. The chemo, although it does a great job of getting the disease under control IF the person's system is responding to it... it also does a lot of wear and tear damage to the body in general. So any time one can be OFF treatment without having the cancer start going wild, is a good thing (in my opinion).

When I was first diagnosed, I had the surgery, the radiation, and then the chemo. All went very well (even though I was a Stage 4 and the "prognosis" was not good), so after 8 months of chemo, my oncologist took me off. She said if the nodules in the lungs ever decided to start growing, then we would go back on chemo... and that they would start growing at some point. But she didn't want to bombard me with chemo when I didn't need it.

I had a break for 2 1/2 years and it was great!! The lung nodules remained dormant... until just this past June. On a regular CEA check it had risen from a 1.2 to a 5.0... so had a CAT scan and that's when we saw a couple of the lung tumours had started to grow. Here I am, back on chemo (Xeloda). As of today's results, the tumours are all shrinking and being put back in their place. My oncologist wants to keep me on the Xeloda for 4 more cycles (8 all together) and then she feels we can take a break again for however long before the nodules start growing again.

That is just me... and that doesn't mean anyone else is responding like I am. But I just wanted to show that there are times when breaks are actually a good thing.... and I love the long breaks!!

Cheryl

AnnaLeigh

More info is a good thing
Hi Tina,

My husband is Stage IV also and I understand the very last word you want to hear is "progression" especially after the good long run that George has had. Second opinions mean the world to us. More information, more options and a new perspective on the whole situation.

During the few breaks we have had in treatment, we always ask that an extra CT scan (no radioactive stuff just drinking contrast) be done in between the PET scans so we have diagnostics closer together and will catch anything early. Scans that are too far apart make us nervous.

It's also very encouraging that all of his other numbers look so good and there aren't any complications outside of the cancer.

Best wishes that everything continues like it has. Love it when people beat those odds!!