Another Roller Coaster of Emotions

Just returned home from Lou's latest chemo today. Another very long day - left at 9:30 and got home at 7:30 - exhausted as usual! New events today that were rather discouraging! The CEA number - the cancer marker in the blood - instead of going down again went up OVER 200 points - going higher than it was previously! The chemo Dr. was a little perplexed by the numbers because the liver function markers were all better - however, this very important cancer marker went up!!! He said this was a little unusual and something that he really couldn't explain. Plan of action will be to see what the number is in two weeks for the next chemo - if it's down - GREAT - if it's up further - he'll do new scans right away to try to figure out what's going on and try to determine if there's another chemo alternative to try to help. Of course, we're hoping and praying that this was a kind of fluke and that the number will be better in two weeks! But, mentally - the roller coaster is NOT good and Lou in particular is thinking the worst!

As we were winding down on the last bag of chemo and just as the nurse was getting ready to change the chemo port line over to the take home chemo bag - she noticed that Lou had a massive rash all over his chest and abdominal area. The Dr. had mentioned today that sometimes when Oxaliplatin is used, then stopped, then started again - the patient can exhibit an allergic reaction. Well....Lou had a BIG allergic reaction - so, they pumped him full of Benadryl and steroids to get the whelps down and stop the allergy reaction. Fortunately, he did not experience any respiratory distress but, his blood pressure elevated quite a bit and of course, the whole thing was a little nerve wrecking - especially after also knowing about the new blood numbers!

Please continue to pray! We really appreciate all of the prayers and support - emotionally right now, we're both pretty fragile! BUT.....we'll keep the faith and pray for the best too!

Blessings to all!
Deb