No Break Yet

Blog readers beware. I am writing this entry and I am not as eloquent or coherent (thanks to the morphine) as Bill. He has done an excellent job describing the situation without using too much medical speak or supplying too much information.

The week of February 16th was a week of recovery for me. I was exhausted after the week before when I had surgery to put a port in, chemotherapy, surgery to replace my stents and 4 radiation treatments. My blood counts were too low to get chemotherapy last week. I did get 5 radiation treatments last week, but otherwise spent a lot of time in bed. This last weekend I had more energy, but I overdid it going up and down the stairs. On Saturday I had to sleep with oxygen.

Late last week, I received the written notes from the stent procedure on Friday, February 13th. The doctor described the strictures (tumors) in my bile ducts as significantly improved. So the PacMen and PacWomen and all of the people that have been praying for me have made a big impact. Wocka, Wocka, Wocka.

This week will see the end of my radiation treatments on my spine on Tuesday. I also thought it would be the last chemotherapy treatment before a 2 week break, however Bill and I met with my medical oncologist this afternoon. The doctor will be adjusting the dosage and I will be having chemotherapy treatment tomorrow, Tuesday February 24th and Tuesday March 3rd. I will then have a break the next week. The schedule that we are going to try is 2 weeks of chemotherapy treatments and a 1 week break. The doctor was happy to see my blood work was looking good. The CA 19-9 tumor marker dropped from 5,000 to 1,000 over the last 6 weeks. This was exciting news. Thank you for all of the prayers. They are definitely working.

So how did I do?

Michelle