good CEA news

Hi All,

I just wanted to report that I just called my onc office and got the results of the CEA test they drew blood for this past Wednesday, just prior to getting chemo. It went down 27 points in the past 4 weeks since it was tested last, from 87 to 59- yeehaw! The month before, it had gone up 21 points (from 66 to 87). The nurse pract. that time said it could be a lab mistake because he didn't see a reason that it should have gone up- so I was on edge to get the results today to see if it really was a trend that it was going up or not. So, I don't know if the last one was a mistake or not, but I'm definitely glad to see that this one went down! Since the last time it was tested, my onc added Avastin into the Gemzar/Xeloda mix and we upped my Xeloda from 2,000 mg/day to 3,000 mg/day (from 2 500 mg. pills 2x daily to 3 500 mg pills 2x daily). I actually had to have my gemzar dose lowered a little this last time cause my platelets took a hit. As CEA has always been a very accurate predictor for cancerous activity in me, I take these tests seriously and so does my onc. He knows it's not valid for everyone, but knows now that it is for me.
I imagine my next scan won't be until mid August, so I'm glad for a good CEA in the meantime. This will help my weekend (if I can get up and going- the upped Xeloda dose has me running to the bathroom, so I'm loading up on Lomotil :~

Blessings to you all,
Lisa