my scan results

Nanab
Hi NanaB/Raquel,

Thanks for the words. Yes, I'm in the San Diego area- actually in far north San Diego county, which is probably 40 miles north and slightly east of downtown San Diego. If you ever get to San Diego, I'd love to meet you! I'm not far from Orange County and Riverside county too, if you ever end up there at all.

I just woke up from my nap about 20 minutes ago & got about 2-1/2 hrs. This was a rare day that I didn't have other commitments, so it was nice. The running around is coming again soon with school getting out & then the orthodontist appt for my daughter, the Dr. appt. for my son... but I'm okay and not stressing.
I'm glad you're feeling better these days, too!

Hugs,
Lisa

dianetavegia said:

Just praising and praising!
Hi Lisa, I'm so happy to hear the liver spot is gone! I'm praying the chemo gets rid of the rest of those little pesky spots next! Awesome, I tell ya!

Coming home from Bible Study today (Beth Moore, John the Beloved) I had a long talk with my Father about you. )

Diane
Hi Diane,

I'm glad for that "talk you had...!"
I've had many with Him lately too.

Take care of yourself,
Lisa

PhillieG said:

Stable
Hi Lisa, I've been on the stable train for quite a while. I do not have as many spots as you but stable is a great word to hear. You know my method of dealing with nausea, it works like a charm.
I'm glad to hear your news, it sounds very good overall
-p

Phil- news in Calif. on medical marijuana
Hi Phil,

I'm glad to join your "stable train". Yes, I know your method of dealing with nausea, and
I had actually started to consider it, but don't have the guts to try it, especially now that it may not even be possible in California anyhow. Do you remember how I shared a while back how the pot dispensaries in San Diego county were raided, well today's news is along those lines too... just as I was actually considering it, all this happens- read below...

The headline is "Appeals court upholds dispensary ban". This is regarding a city in Los Angeles County. "The state of California's 2nd district court of appeals said in its decision that the city of Clairmont in Los Angeles County could ban dispensaries without violating the state's medical marijuana laws." "This is because neither law compels the establishment of local regulations to accommodate medical marijuana dispensaries." "What this court said is if you are arguing that a city cannot ban a dispensary, that argument is no longer valid." "San Diego County officials and medical marijuana activists said they are espcially watching a case involving the city of Anaheim in Orange County. Some medical marijuana activists say they believe San Diego county is closely following the Anaheim case because the supervisors here want the permanently ban medical marijuana disepensaries, not regulate them."

Like all the cancer patients and other people controlling their pain and nausea are really a threat? I just don't understand why the feds are spending so much time on medical marijuana dispensaries? It makes me wonder if other stuff doesn't go on there too- like illegal dealing for non prescription patients? I don't know- just wondering. I can't think of any other reason why people would be so against it, if they checked out how it can actually help people.

Well, take care Phil-
Lisa

Fb489 said:

Stage 4
You are a stage 4 survivor from 2004.
have you been on chemo since that time? what were your treatments.
Any advice on what will help me survive as long as you have.

Fb489
Hi "Fb489",

You said I'm a stage IV survivor from 2004- actually, I was diagnosed in August of 2007. So, it's been just over 2 years that I've been dealing with this. There are definitely others on the board that have been stage IV longer than that, and are still around and are even stable. You asked what my treatments have been...

Well, I've been off and on with the chemo during these 2 years. I took Folfox/Avastin at first & it really did help, as my liver was just riddled with tumors and it was throughout both lungs also upon diagnosis. It allowed me to become a surgical candidate and to even have the radiation on my originally found rectal tumor. I didn't have surgery to remove that at first because my lungs and liver were just too bad, so they had to do the major chemo first. I then had six weeks of chemo/radiation, focusing on my rectal tumor- it ended up completely resolving and going away. After considering for a bit, my surgeon and I decided not to do the rectal resection surgery- reasons being there was nothing left there to remove and my cancer had already spread elsewhere (surgically removing the affected colorectal area after radiation, even if it totally goes away is usually to prevent it from recurring and spreading elsewhere)- so I never had the rectal resection. No recurrences there, so far anyhow- (I have a colonoscopy coming up on Oct 7, but nothing has shown up in rectal area on any scans since the radiation there).

I did, however, still have three tumors in my liver (or so they thought- six tumors were actually discovered during surgery). I had my liver resection surgery in May '08. That went well and without any complications. I had no chemo or any kind of treatment from May-August '08 (I should have had some kind of post surgical chemo, but didn't). That August of '08 is when I had a recurrence in my lungs and liver. I was put on irinotecan and Erbitux. The Erbitux gave me a HORRIBLE rash- the worst the doctors and nurses had ever seen in their office, so they said. That has always supposedly meant the Erbitux is working well- well that theory shot out the door when k-ras testing (ordered by my surgeon when he found out what my onc. had me on- they were not a team, unfortunately)- well the k-ras revealed that I had the mutation & my suffering with the rash on it for 2 months had been for nothing.
I was then switched to Folfiri plus Avastin. I took that from Oct '08- April '09. In April '09, my PET scan showed nothing lighting up. I then went off the irinotecan, but stayed on Avastin and added in Xeloda. This was a kind of "maintenance dose". Well, even after staying on this maintenance dose April-July, the July '09 scan showed another recurrence in liver and lungs. Back on Folfiri I went and just scanned, as you know. So, now I'm "stable", with the nodule in the liver now gone and the numerous tiny tumors in the lungs stable. So, I'll continue this treatment for a while- I guess until it no longer works or my body can't take it anymore. We'll see... I'm always looking for new things in the works to have something ready on hand to do if I have to stop taking the irinotecan. There are a few ideas out there- we'll see...

So, there's my long run-down on what chemos and treatments I've had, as you asked.