Comes the Spring, Comes the News

A few weeks ago, Ed noticed a couple of small nodules along the suture lines of the liver surgery.  He had his Bellingham surgeon check them out.  Said surgeon thought the smaller one was clearly a suture, but he wasn't sure about the larger one, only a CT scan could give more clarity.  So a CEA test and a CT scan were done last week and we met with the oncologist yesterday.

The CEA was up again, now to 8.0 (from 4.7 in late January).  More troubling was the CT scan, which showed a widely scattered 'flurry' of small tumors (4-10 mm.) throughout the omentum/mesentery, which is to say within the abdomen/peritoneum.  (I never heard of the omentum; one of the side aspects of this whole experience is our late learning of anatomy.)

This is not good news, but it is not altogether surprising.  Certainly the point of the liver resection was to provide a period of normal life without medical interventions, and we have certainly had that (about 9 months worth).  We had obviously hoped that it would be a longer period, but there is always a ragged edge, a point where it's 'too soon' when you are yet feeling well, even normal.

Although they are small tumors, they are in an area that provides lots of potential for growth (the omentum is an excellent source for tumor blood supply).  Because the tumors are widespread, surgical removal is not an option.  Further chemo (any of the large range of recipes for chemo) is available and will probably have some positive effect (more months of normal life, although now with medical intervention: ie, chemo and its side effects).

Says the oncologist: 'Because [Ed] has responded better than average throughout the past 2 years to medical interventions, he will probably respond better than average to chemotherapy even at this point.'

So, next week, he will begin, again, an every-other-week chemo infusion of 5FU, the lightest of the chemo regimens.  The plan is for four rounds at which point we will reassess to determine how the CEA is responding, how Ed is responding psychologically and physically to the chemo, and whether it makes sense to increase the strength of the chemo regime.  At this point, it is chemo or nothing so we are inclined to decisions that can be regularly assessed.

Obviously not good news; I am sorry to be sending it to you, you are sorry to be reading it.  But, the fact is that Ed is, to all our senses, in normal health and asymptomatic except for the papers they send us with numbers and pictures on them.  As Ed noted, we are brought a little closer to reality -- it seems coreopsis has set in.  But keep in mind that life just goes on, anyway.  I am remembering to be here now.  You, too.