Here is a picture of Michael in the chemo parlor. Today was his 4th round of chemo. The Avastin is working it's magic. His tumor markers are down to 1554! (They started at 4338.) And his liver enzymes are slowly going down as well. He is definitely starting to feel the effects of the chemo but it's very encouraging to see the improvements in black and white.

As I had hoped, Michael started feeling a lot better last night. It's funny how quickly he can make a turn around. He desperately wanted to get a good nights sleep last night so I bought some melatonin to try and help and of course I read that it shouldn't be taken if you're on coumadin. It's always something! But he took it anyways and didn't get up during the night. I wouldn't say it was a particularly restful sleep but it's probably the best nights sleep he's had in weeks. The pain in his leg from the blood clot still bothers him and his legs cramp up at night so he's constantly tossing & turning. I did discover that the Protonix the doctor gave him for GERD causes sleeplessness so he quit taking it and just went back to Zantec. It's a constant quest to figure out the drug interactions!!

This week has been particularly hard for Michael. He had his 3rd round of chemo last week and he's been pretty miserable ever since. He can't really explain how or why he feels bad which is very frustrating for me because I don't know how to help him. To make things worse, he can't sleep and he's up all night. The doctor gave him some ambien but it didn't work at all. I'm hoping that he'll feel better in a day or two because it will be a week since the chemo. I'm going to TRY and get him to start changing his diet. I would like to start by cutting out sugar and caffeine and then try and wean him off "junk food". All the crap he eats can't be helping! He's down a couple of pounds but this is usually the trend...lose weight the week after chemo...put it back on the week before chemo...then do it all over again.

I got all of Michael's recent lab results today. His CEA level was 4338 on August 18. It is now 3287. The CEA are basically tumor markers. It is a good way to measure if the treatment is working. Normal levels are 0 - 2.5. I know it seems bad but the doctor said it's all relative. They have seem some people with fewer tumors and higher markers and some people with more tumors and lower markers. The good thing is his CEA is going down which means he is responding well to the treatment.

He had chemo today and it really took the wind out of his sails but I got a whopping 3,500 calories in him today. (I'm really getting good at this!) He was up 2 lbs. The doctor warned us that the chemo would become harder and harder but he's hangin' in there. His RBC (red blood cell count) is climbing out of the danger zone and his WBC (white blood cell count) is actually normal. So everything seems to be going according to plan!! YAY!!

THANK YOU, GOD!! Michael went to the doctor today for the blood work before he starts chemo tomorrow. His bilirubin level is 1 which is normal. (A high bilirubin level is what makes you jaundice.) Dr. Mittal was very encouraged. The Avastin has got to be working!! His bilirubin level was at 2.8 on Sept 1. (Normal bilirubin is 0.2 - 1.3) What a dramatic improvement in just 14 days! I can only thank you all for your prayers!!!

Here's a picture of Michael waiting in the doctors office in Madison. It was a long day for both of us.

OK...so I think I've figured out which days are the worst for Michael after chemo. He starts chemo on Wednesday and is at the hospital for about 4-6 hours. He has the pump on until Friday afternoon. Beginning Thursday he starts feeling bad. He's very grumpy, can't sleep and generally doesn't feel good at all. (We found out that they add steroids to his chemo to help with nausea which keeps him from sleeping.) This lasts until the following Thursday or Friday. And then the whole thing starts over again on Wednesday. So that works out to be about 7 days feeling really crappy and about 7 days feeling a little better.

They seem to think he'll need to do 2 months of chemo which is about 5 rounds and then they'll do another CT scan to see if the chemo is working. He'll more than likely need to start on the chemo again right away. If it's working, they don't want to give the tumors time to return and multiply.

I haven't been very successful in helping him gain some weight back. I would have to guess that he's eating about 1000-1500 calories a day and he certainly isn't very physically active. So I don't believe he is burning more calories than he is eating so I can't quite figure out why the rapid weight loss?!? Very frustrating!!

The doctors in Madison were very nice and they said they would be more than happy to consult with us during the current treatment at Lakeland. They gave us some good news and some not so good news. The good news is that they are not convinced that the spots on Michael's lungs are cancer. They are actually pretty confident they are not. The not so good news is that he has about 12 tumors on his liver which makes him ineligible for any sort of surgery to remove the liver tumors at this point. The doctor said that she is very surprised that he isn't showing any signs of jaundice because his liver enzymes show distress. They believe the current course of treatment is the correct path for now. He might even need to go through another cycle of chemo before they can move any further. Radiation is also not an option at this time because the liver tumors are so wide spread. They believe that radiation would shrink the tumor in the colon but they need to concentrate on the liver. Erbitux is another chemo that they are recommending to our current doctor which is even more new than the Avastin. The other thing that bothered me was that Michael has lost 5 lbs since last week. I need to get him to focus on adding more calories to his diet.

Today is Michael's final day of round two of chemo. He survived remarkably well with very few side effects. He's tired, has headaches and diminished appetite but that's really all that's bothering him. I think he's very lucky to have made it through these first 2 rounds without suffering from some of the awful side effects they warned us about. Tuesday we head up to Madison to see the doctors there and I am very much looking forward to it! Hope everybody has a great holiday weekend!

Yesterday was a hard day for me. Michael wasn't feeling good and he couldn't really explain why. The doctor attributed it to the liver cancer which almost sent me over the edge. But Michael woke me up in the middle of the night and he was soaked. It's like he broke a fever or something, but he said he felt 100% better! So he went to chemo this morning feeling physically and mentally really good which was a huge relief! He seems to think that his body was just sweating out all the toxins from the last round of chemo. He wants to start going to the spa for a steam bath. Whatever works!!!

Michael went to the doctor today for blood tests before they start the next round of chemo. His liver enzymes are still not good and the doctor said his bilirubin levels are high but he doesn't look jaundice. This explains the pain in the upper abdomen he's been experiencing. So he's going to add Avastin to the chemo. It is specifically for metastatic colorectal cancer. The side effects sound terrible. I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster and I want off!! I'm so worried...