Saturday, December 23, 2006

CA 19-9 Results Down

We are thrilled that the CA 19-9 came out at 18 which is the first time the marker has ever gone down, breaking the upwards trend - A great Christmas gift. Peace be with you.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Latest Checkup

Our mother saw Dr. Laheru this week. The great news is her CT scan was once again clean. We are awaiting her CA 19-9 results which we should get shortly. If those numbers stay in line, I will be very relieved. My family is heading over to spend Christmas in Virginia so we will be very thankful for any good news.

We had a lot to discuss with Dr. Laheru with respect to the next steps for her treatment plan. Basically we have decided to not complete her Gemzar chemotherapy. Our mother had completed only 1 of the 9 Gemzar infusions before she had some bleeding incidents and her stomach condition deteriorated. She has been very weak and has had problems with her eating and weight for the last year. Instead, we are going to try and start her on the Hopkins vaccine booster trial in January. Dr. Laheru mentioned that new results for the vaccine will be published in January but he wouldn't tell us if the results continue to look promising or not.

It's now been slightly over a year since our mother's operation. She has gone through a lot of suffering and she handled all of this with tremendous strength and a wonderful attitude. Her stomach pain and eating problems continue and don't show any signs of improvement but we hope that things get better next year. I hope she will be able to start enjoying her days a little bit more this next year and that she will be able to travel.

Happy Holidays.