I see it's been two and a half weeks now with no blog post. That has been on the whole a continuation of the "no news is good news" procedure—not a lot to report, though I haven't deliberately refrained from saying so. Steve has been working on weaning himself from the feeding machine (as he mentioned in his last blog entry). For the last week or two he has been eating three small meals plus the occasional snack during each day, and using the machine only at night. His weight has gone down a bit, though not consistently or precipitately. (BMI scale shows him now just on the border between "normal" and "overweight." ;->) He would love to go off the machine entirely, but that will require significantly increasing his daytime caloric intake. He keeps aiming for that, so we'll see how it goes.
Yesterday we visited our oncologist, who showed us results of last week's CAT scan. Unlike the previous one (in late April), which showed good reductions in the cancer spots, this one showed increased issues ("atelectatic opacities" and "a new nodular opacity") in both lungs—not big things, but bigger than they were last time, which is of course disappointing. One of the blood tests, for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)—which the doctor described as an "imprecise measure of the amount of cancer cells" in the body—had gone up significantly [usual level in healthy nonsmokers is below 3; Steve's level had gone down to 6 in May, but back up to 30 in June and 39 yesterday]. And the CAT also showed some increased fluid accumulation around his heart, which was one problem involved in our last overnight hospital stay.
Considering all those things, the doctor decided to change the chemo regimen again, this time to Camptosar, in a cycle of four weekly doses followed by a two-week break. We got the first dose yesterday, and so far no bad side effects have showed up.
The good news is that Steve continues to feel pretty good ("so darn good," as the doctor said, that he even hesitated to change the chemo regimen). Steve has gone walking with Clair a couple of times, and plans to do more of that. He regularly drives himself to various visits and appointments now, and as I mentioned above he's eating more and often enjoying it quite a bit. And except for the specific issues in the long paragraph above, the CAT scan showed stable and normal conditions in other areas. We plan to drive to Pittsburgh this weekend to see Melissa and her team play in a curling bonspiel; we will return to Columbus July 23-24 for a bar-exam tailgate related to my law school work; and we have booked a flight to Boston for another visit the first week in August.
So, with thanks to our medical team and to all of our supportive friends and family, we continue forward with energy and optimism. We hope that you all are well, and will keep in touch in whatever ways work best for you.
--Carol
