I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! Everything was good here. I fed Michael as much as I possibly could and he lost 2 lbs....what the heck?!?! He's been having nose bleeds almost every morning for the last week or more so I'm going to have to set up the humidifier. He slept most of the weekend which I guess is good. The hernia in his belly button is starting to worry me...it's gotten considerably worse and the doctor can't do surgery on it while he is doing chemo and he has at least 2 more months to go. He's growing very weary of all the side affects from the chemo. I hope his tumor markers are down even more next week....I think he needs the mental boost.

The doctor called Michael's scans "a mixed bag"....Bad news: the one large tumor in his liver appears to have gotten a little bigger and there a few new very small spots on his lungs....Good news: his tumor markers are down to 393 from 683 and the tumor in his colon has shrunk from 11.5 cm to 4.8 cm. Dr. Mittal initially wanted to change the chemo treatment but considering the tumor markers are down so much, he has decided to proceed with the current treatment.

The PET scan was much more favorable than the CT scan but neither report was unfavorable. I think the results are very good in general!!

The summary of the CT scan says "Innumerable hepatic masses are again seen. The largest has increased in size; however, it has decreased activity, which is a more reliable predictor of improvement or favorable response to treatment. At least one of the periportal nodes has decreased in size. There is no convincing evidence for progressive metastatic disease. Continued follow-up will be necessary, especially to evaluate the pulmonary findings. Overall stable appearance to the colon mass."

The summary of the PET scan says "Overall, findings consistent with a favorable response to treatment. There is substantial decreased activity with the liver as well as the periportal lymph nodes...No new lesions are seen."

The doctor did tell us that there is only one other kind of chemo that he has for Michael to try if this treatment doesn't work. Michael seemed to focus on this one negative part of conversation. I told him that there a lot more doctors out there and this treatment is working....so let's just concentrate on that!

Maybe I'm jumping the gun but I looked at Michael's PET scan on the disk they gave us and I think the improvements are remarkable! I could clearly see the tumor in is colon on the last scan but I don't see it in the new scan. And his liver was just one giant cloudy mass on the last scan and now it seems like there are just a few cloudy spots....certainly nothing as dark as before! I doubt that the tumors have disappeared but I'm convinced they have shrunk quite a bit!! I am anxious to hear what the doctor has to say on Tuesday. Some positive news will give us both a boost!!

Michael has actually felt pretty good over the last several days. The radio-active dye they have to inject him with to do the scans always leaves a metallic taste in his mouth for a few days. But he's been more himself than I've seen in a long time.

So Michael had a PET & CT scan today and I thought they would give him the printout from the results but no such luck. So we have to wait until Tuesday when he sees the doctor. I hate waiting but I know the results will be positive...the only thing I'm unsure of is exactly how much the tumors have shrunk.

It's 64, the sun is out and Michael is outside tinkering with the corvette. We'll probably go for a ride later.....that's always a good sign!

Michael has be struggling with severe shoulder pain for the better part of this week. He told the chemo nurse and she suggested that he get it x-rayed but the pain is more in the muscle and not the bone. That evil voice inside my head keeps telling me that the cancer has spread. But after I talk myself off the ledge...I do the logical thing and start scouring the internet for answers. I've read that muscle pain during chemo isn't uncommon. Some believe it is from all the free radicals from the chemo. The Oxycontin doesn't help much...so he takes Advil which seems to help a little and I try my best to distract him from the pain without irritating him.........that could go either way!

Today was not a good day. Michael was ablsolutely miserable when he came home today. I thought that the brief break would make it all the harder to start chemo again and unfortunately I was right. His blood work was good but the doctor thinks he is going to have a few shots every week to keep his white blood count up. I had read that this might happen. Michael isn't happy about it but the doctor has given some meds for the bone pain. He was up to 162.6 lbs yesterday so that was a good thing!!