One Year Ago Today UPDATE

Hi All!

Well, it was exactly one year ago today that my Bert was diagnosed with stage III right colon cancer. Surgery took place that was supposed to be a "piece of cake" and 7 hours later, the results turned out quite different. It has been a year of both great joys and much anxiety, tears, and scares....but he's here and I'm so grateful. To recap, Bert had his last chemo today!!!!! We started back in August of 2003 on 5fu/leuc, every week, for six weeks, two weeks off, and then back again. This continued and was stopped only once for an additional week off when Bert was hospitalized with a sever colon infection. We switched oncologists in early January (best move we ever made....thanks again Jodi XXXOOOO) located at the USC Cancer Center who immediately added oxaliplatin to the cocktail, but cycle was changed, overall doseage increased and administered differently. From the get go, we have had very few problems with this regime....minor ones yes and several that were resolved simply by coming to this board for answers. Now today, as I said before, Bert had his last treatment after completing another 6 months....so all in all, 10 months/11 months total. He will be having full and complete scans (PET as well as CAT) again on June 22 (just 8 weeks since his last set that were all clear) and results will be related to when we see his oncologist again on June 28. If there will be any further course of action, we will know at that time....Dr. Lenz did mention something about "maintenance chemo" (don't know what the heck that is....anybody out there know?????) but for now, Bert is technically done. CEA was up again a little bit...Dr. is now pretty much convinced that it's Bert's reaction to chemo...remember, six weeks of and a big 3 point drop....two treatments later, up from 6.0 to 6.5...makes sense because they have literally turned Bert inside out and can't find anything (YIPEEEEEE YAHOOOOO WAY TO GO!!!!!)but he has assured both Bert and I that he will remain vigilant because he still doesn't like the numbers (way to go doc!).

As for me, all I can say is I'm glad we've come this far and I know we have a long way to go. I could not have made it through this first year dealing with both my mom and my husband without the endless support from you wonderful folks and I will always be grateful. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. Please keep us in your prayers as you will all remain in mine.

Lots of hugs,
Monika