So it's now 22nd of Feb and as things stand Carl is doing pretty well. He's had about 5-6 Folfirinox treatments for his new liver lesions, he had a MRI scan after number 3 (or maybe 4..I think i have chemo brain now too!) and the report came back saying good words like "considerable improvement" and "drastic reduction". Originally there were 9 tumours in the liver this time around and now the report says they can see only one and its reduced from 1.8cm to 1cm in size. The only bad side is that the tumour is invading the liver capsule but only in one place now and Im hoping that the last 2-3 chemos have reduced it even further so that it's release the capsule completely.
Carl is booked in for an ablation on the 16th of March, we battled the insurance company to get it done which is where Proff works and they finally agreed to it just over a week ago. The hospital has said 3 more chemos and then a break, but we will have to see what happens. They always add 1 or 2... or 5 more on depending on what they feel like that week.
I've not been obssessing over CA19 markers this time around, I think i just cant cope with them any more, but I know they were 1700 ish in December and have been halving every 2 weeks since chemo started. I think they were about 240 the last time we were told, so they have come down very nicely too.
Carl's also now been diagnosed with diabetes, well he self diagnosed as all the drs ignored his comments on thirst, urinating and blurred vision. But after getting a blood glucose monitor from boots we went in with the reading and they were amazed how high they were (reading of 31 when normal is 5-7). He started insulin last week and they have dropped to around the 10mark, so we will start to increase the dosage of insulin over the next couple days to try to get it into the normal range. They have delayed chemo to try to bring the sugars down as the steroids given with folfirinox are know to raise blood sugar massively. Next chemo should be this wednesday and its been a month since he's had any, but im not sure how low they want his sugars before they will start it again.
Carl was also featured in a cancer research uk billboard campaign after agreeing to being photographed during a chemo session he had a reaction to the chemo and was admitted into a ward which is when the pic was taken. It's a pic of him and his mum, I'd left to go to work by this point so (thankfully) im not on the billboard too!
http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-se ... y-campaign
there is a link to an article with a pic of it on.
Anyway, that's enough from me, hope you're all coping ok, I looked in the mirror yesterday and wondered what has happened to me over the last 3 years, im definitely not the same person I was then! Mentally, physically, emotionally. Lots of ways better, lots of ways worse, but I expect we all have the same experience there.
Much love to you all and sending out as much strength as I can spare to each of you and your loved ones.
Rob