Ever Hopeful

Well, on Wednesday I went in for my second set of scans since 10/26/09 when my baseline was established. This time the results were certainly not as encouraging as the results we got 8 weeks ago. The scans taken on 12/23/09 indicated the size of the tumors had shrunk by 30%. This time there was an overall 34% reduction, so only a 4% gain. Unfortunately, one of the tumors on my left lung is growing again. Not exactly what I wanted to hear. At first I was really bummed out, but I have now sucked it up and I’m re-dedicating myself 110% to my recovery. I had gotten a little lax about a few things, falling back into regular life. I’m chugging down my wheatgrass again. Once I’ve started the chemo therapy, lots of things that I used to like are now on my “Yuk” list. Wheatgrass is one of them, but it’s mind over matter, so I swill it down. Yum.

I’m not discouraged (much) and trust God and my doctors. The good news is that if this treatment isn’t working, we are definitely not out of options. The doc is doing a test to see if have the mutated B-RAF gene that would qualify me for a highly successful trial that’s going on right now. Anyway, we are going to stay on this trial for 2 more cycles (I start the next one this coming Wednesday, Mar 3), do another scan in 8 weeks and see how it’s going.

So that’s it for now. Still, if you look at the overall picture, my tumors have shrunk by 1/3 and I’m in partial remission. Definitely not dying today. Lots of love to you all.