Tumor Marker Results!

This is Hailey...I am the lucky one who accompanied mom to chemotherapy today. We got the results back on her tumor marker tests and they were at a 57 with the normal range being 0-31, and a 52 with normal range being 0-31! She is almost NORMAL! I know these numbers don't mean a whole lot, but to put things in perspective at the beginning her numbers were 166 and 171. Last month they were 96 and 94. So they have gone down dramatically. The doctor was very pleased and said that she is responding really well.

Mom is experiencing some not so pleasant side effects from one of the chemo drugs called Evastin. The doctor said today that they would probably quit giving her evastin for now, because one of their objectives is to make the quality of life better. After talking with mom we both agreed that it would be better to go through a little suffering with the side effects if it meant that it would increase her survivability. So we will have to address that with the doctor next time.

Today she did her 2nd week of chemo in her 3rd round (each round is 3 weeks). Dr. Francisco said that after she finished this round (in two weeks) he wants her to get a CT scan. This will make it easier for them to tell exactly how well the tumors have responded and if they have partial shrinkage or complete shrinkage. Depending on what they see on that test, there is a possibility that she would just go on the hormone therapy pill and only get one chemo drug once a month that helps with bone strength. If that was the case, then her hair should start growing back! The hormone pill is what stops the estrogen from feeding the tumors and will hopefully keep the tumors small for a LONG time!

We are happy with those results and hope that this next round brings her tumor markers to normal range. We couldn't be happier with how mom is responding, it is definitely an answer to our prayers. Thanks for all your comments, mom loved reading them!