Remission

I haven't posted for a while because I have been so terrified by the whole experience of having my husband diagnosed with colon cancer.

By way of background, my husband had surgery in May of 2006 for diverticulitis and a large colon cancer tumor was found. His initial post-op pet scans showed no cancer and he was treated with Xeloda for four months. In November he had a follow-up pet and ct scan and the scans showed several places which indicated colon cancer spread.

Then, for four months now, he had infusion chemotherapy with campostar and avastin. Last Friday he had follow-up ct and pet scans that showed major improvements. His oncologist says he is in remission.

My father died of multiple myeloma 20+ years ago. It was awful. I have a tendency to see this experience through the lens of that terrible experience although I know that major improvements have been made in cancer treatment in the intervening years.

I can't tell you how relieved I feel tonight.

By the way, we are continuing chemotherapy for three more months as a backup to kill any residual cancer cells. My husband has been tolerating the chemotherapy well to this point, so this seems wise to us.

Thank you to everyone for their good thoughts.

Hatshepsut