Understanding Your CEA

dmj101

Ok ... Well here I go.

MY CEA is 2.. Great right?.... well not for me..
I have mets in my lungs, tonsil, and spleen. How can this be...
Not in everyone can the CEA be an indicator I have learned.

I had Thryoid cancer previous to Rectal cancer and when I was doing the follow up for the Thyroid. we thought I was having thyroid reoccurence since my thyrogobulin stimilated to 10 when it should have been 0 ... so my Endocronologist sent me for a PET CT... where the mets were found and sent me to my oncologist as where they were were not likely thyroid...
MY oncologist wasn't sending me for any scan since the CEA was normal at 2.

SO MESSAGE here is BE EDUCATED...

My eyes are now open.. and don't know where I am headed yet.. but I started Xeloda this week.. but my head had been spinning for a month now..

I hope to figure this out soon. And hoping I can put this chapter to a close..

I am angry with my onoologist right now as she would never have found this till I was showing symptoms.. this is a horrible story and I hope to find a happy ending as I had just finally been starting to feel better and this hits..

To top it off.. I have been single for the last 8 years and I finally was finding that part of me again that was looking forward to finding someone to share my life with.. well I don't know how to move on with goal.... all I know is the loneliness I feel is so consuming.. and this horrible disease is destoying my hope.,.
I try to smile and laugh as much as I can to fight these feelings but it is getting harder everytime I turn around.

Donna

Sundanceh

Donna:)
(((DONNA)))

CEA's are very misleading...they were a good marker for liver...but I had a 0.5 at the lowest point in my life a couple of years after that....and a tumor the size of a tangerine.

At that point, I don't put much credence into it...I'm aware of the number but look more for mass through scans and to see how blood work goes.

Cancer is an isolating disease and so I can feel your anguish from wanting to find someone to share your live with...I suppose, it would be best just to come clean up front about it - if they walked, they would have anyway...and you never know...you just never know.

And Hope is an elusive guy, isn't he? Once he slips away, it's sometimes hard to find him again...and when Hope moves out - Depression can move in - and then he invites Despair and Hopelessness while the door is still cracked open.

All of a sudden, you've got alot of unwanted houseguests - and they don't pay rent either.

I've been there, Donna....last year I got so lonely, I would roll a couple of dollars of pennies and put that in the gas tank....the Walmart was a mile up the road, so I'd drive up to the parking lot and turn my car off and just wonder about the "Why's and If's..."

There are just no easy answers to any of this...I'm sorry you are feeling so despondent...I was in the deepest depression I had ever been in - I was so sick from the treatments that I could not live - and I could not die.

Most days, I was just wishing for one or the other.

I understand the human experience pretty good - and loneliness and I are old companions.

Keep fighting those feelings...just mark the days off, do what you can do, and then wait for the tide to turn...in life, most storms eventually pass over us - but first, they have to go right through us.

-Craig

Lovekitties

Dear Donna
You sure have had a hard road to go health wise, so it is no wonder you are feeling as you do.

Have you considered getting another onc? Seems like the one you have has put doubt in your mind, for good reason. One lesson we all learn is that we have to be our own advocate when it comes to how we deal with our diagnosis, and you have to have a doc who will be a contributing team member with you.

Don't shut yourself off from the possibility of a lasting relationship. As Craig says, be up front about what you are facing. The good one(s) will stick around and offer you support.

Hoping that happens for you and that your health will improve.

Hugs,

Marie who loves kitties

Nana b

Lovekitties said:

Dear Donna
You sure have had a hard road to go health wise, so it is no wonder you are feeling as you do.

Have you considered getting another onc? Seems like the one you have has put doubt in your mind, for good reason. One lesson we all learn is that we have to be our own advocate when it comes to how we deal with our diagnosis, and you have to have a doc who will be a contributing team member with you.

Don't shut yourself off from the possibility of a lasting relationship. As Craig says, be up front about what you are facing. The good one(s) will stick around and offer you support.

Hoping that happens for you and that your health will improve.

Hugs,

Marie who loves kitties

Great advice Craig!
Great advice Craig! Thyroid is the one thing that can make a CEA go up or down and not allow a true indicator of cancer. As soon as my CEA went up my ONC checked my thyroid just to be sure it wasn't that....

Hang in there! It's tough i know, but like Craig says do all you can not to go there....

thxmiker

Informed
There are different sugars and protein markers that one is tested for as a marker for specific cancers. The issue is that cancers morph into other cancers.

Our prayers and thoughts are with you to get the treatments that you need.
Best Always, mike

PhillieG

CEA
That good old CEA... It's such a tricky marker, what's normal for one person often means something else to another person. I've found that the best we can do with the CEA is to see/track our own and see how it coincides with our own health status. Fluctuations may be normal for some while a slight rise in another person's may signal trouble.
So your message is a good one Donna, be Educated and know YOUR normals as far as CEA and other markers and tests go and if you notice a change, followup on it.
-phil