Relief Floods . . .

Okay, just got the result for the CA15-3. It's 18.4! Yay! That's LOWER than last month.

Here's the history:

Sept 2007 - 23 U/mL
Jan 2008 - 31 U/mL
Mar 2008 - 36 U/mL
June 2008 - 23 U/mL (started radiation that month)
Aug 2008 - 18 U/mL (week of August 4th)
Sept 2008 - 14.5 U/mL YAAAAAAY!!!
Oct 1 2008 - 19.6 U/mL
Oct 31 2008 - 15.3 U/mL
Nov 28 2008 - 19.5 U/mL
Dec 30 2008 - 16.0 U/mL
Jan 22 2009 - 15.4 U/mL
Mar 2 2009 - 17.8 U/mL
Apr 8 2009 - 19.6 U/mL
May 5 2009 - 18.4 U/mL

Remember that anything below 33 is considered normal.

Here's the history for the CEA:

1/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
3/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
6/2008 - 1.0 ng/mL
8/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL (need to double check this number, but it was in that 0.9 to 1.2 range)
9/2008 - 0.5 ng/mL
10/2008 - 0.9 ng/mL
10/31/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
11/28/2008 - 1.2 ng/mL
12/30/2008 - 1.1 ng/mL
3/2/2009 - 1.4 ng/mL
4/8/2009 - 1.6 ng/mL
5/5/2009 - 1.9 ng/mL

For the CEA, anything below 3.8 is considered normal!

Whew. Only now do I realize what a relief it is that the numbers are still staying relatively low. Big sigh.

My colleague, S., forwarded to me a research article about the CEA and CA15-3. According to this article from Feb 2008, they showed that the "predictive" value of the measures increase when they are used together. In addition, they showed that the two numbers have to be "elevated", which I think means above the thresholds of 33 for the CA15-3 and above 3.8 (or 2.5 or 5) for the CEA. Both of my numbers are below that "elevated" level.

Okay. I can sleep better tonight.

I also must admit to being disappointed that Allison Iraheta was voted off American Idol last night. I think she was great. This is the first year that I've watched it and I've been really impressed with this group. I'm even contemplating going to their Top 10 summer tour - starts in Portland on July 5th.