Asymptomatic, Says the Doc

It's good to be reminded of that, it seems to me. The new, three-week CEA reading was 6.3, .9 higher than the last measurement, three weeks ago. Ed went to Bellingham today for the Avastin infusion and a doctor chat. He constructed a little trend line graph of the CEA readings (above) covering the past 59 weeks. He and the doc agreed, looking at this graphic, that there was a clear upward trend line over the past 21 weeks. And what did this imply? Specifically, was it time to reintroduce chemotherapy?

Well, says the doc, that's certainly something for us to discuss next time (six weeks from now). And further, says the doc, you are currently asymptomatic and there is no research to guide us on what is the best next step, so we can do whatever we want. And that was this 6-weeks meet-up with the doc.

Well, not quite all. The levels in all the blood tests they do (except for the CEA) are all normal, including hemoglobin and hematocrit, which have been slow to recover. Also, blood pressure is fine. He's asymptomatic. Did I mention that? And is currently re-wiring much of the orchard house so that the wiring is better balanced, which requires creeping around in the 16-inch crawl space. And has re-begun some weight-lifting.  And maybe spring is coming.