The weekend seemed to get away from us without me making a blog post, and I’m not quite sure how that happened, but it did. Where does all the time go?
Karen was too fatigued to have chemo last week. Her platelets were too low and the doctor thought it best to hold off and let her body recover a little. He’ll also decrease the amount of chemo meds this round.
True to form, the docs are never apt to let a week go by without a little bit of torture, so they scheduled a colonoscopy to get a biopsy of the largest tumor. This tumor resides in the cecum, which is where the large and small intestines join. It’s been a particularly worrisome tumor for us, since it’s in the bowel tract, and serious bowel problems sometimes arise during Karen’s type of chemo. The tumor was on all the CT scans, but the PET scan suggested it might not be active cancer. Much to our surprise, the gastroenterologist could not find the tumor! Instead, he found an enlargement and thickening of part of the intestinal tract which he says is not dangerous. Apparently, this type of enlargement sometimes looks like a tumor on CT scans.
We’re taking that as a bit of positive news. Yes, the PET scan showed plenty of active tumors, but showed that the biggest one (that remained after surgery), and the one in the most precarious position, isn’t a cancerous tumor after all. The other tumors are mostly smaller, even if a lot remain. Now we just need to find the proper meds to reduce those!
Chemo starts again today, and we’re adding a third med to the mix, so we’re not sure how the week will go, but trying to stay positive. She feels so weak and frustrated already, but we’re trying to hang on to the thought that it’s temporary. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the goal in mind when it’s one setback after another. That’s why we’re trying to take this development as a win among all the losses. Thank you all for your love and support!
When life hands you lemons . . . . 🙂