We went to Bellingham today to see Ed's oncologist and to talk about what to do next. We looked at the CT scan and he pointed out that some of the tumors that were found last February had now shrunk or disappeared. Still, there were new ones and if new tumors were appearing then the implication was that the chemo wasn't probably doing much to prevent disease progression. I am not clear about the logic of this, but it is clearly what he thinks.
On the other hand, Ed could go back to either of the two stronger forms of chemo, with or without Avastin (which he had last year). He felt that Ed would probably do better than most patients as he has always done better than most patients. In fact, he was downright encouraging, which he usually isn't particularly.
At the end, Ed decided to try to stronger chemo that he had not previously had because it doesn't have peripheral neuropathy as a side effect and he doesn't want any more of that than he already has. It does tend toward GI side effects around the chemo infusion (2-3 days) period, but everybody doesn't get them. He has had no experience of nausea ever, so...maybe a harbinger. Who knows. In any case, if he hates it, he can not pursue it.
So we will see. They began the infusion at 3 pm today and we got home from Bellingham at 8:30 (Ed driving, of course). And he's okay now. But we're both pretty tired from the day and its stresses. And his CEA is down to 10.1 (October 26), which is about 1.4 down from last time, I think. I'm too tired right now to go look it up. But I'll correct it later if I'm wrong.
