Tumor Marker Results and Blast From the Past

I received my tumor marker numbers yesterday - my treatment was Mondayday. The CEA was up to 13.2 (from 10.5 last month) and the CA15-3 was down to 37.5 (from 38.5 last month). Anything less than 3.8 is normal for the CEA and anything less than 33 is good for the CA15-3.

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
6/4/2009 - 3.0 ng/mL
7/2/2009 - 3.7 ng/mL
8/3/2009 - 4.2 ng/mL
8/31/2009 - 5.1 ng/mL
10/2/2009 - 5.7 ng/mL (or was it 5.8?)
11/2/2009 - 7.6 ng/mL
11/30/2009 - 10.5 ng/mL
12/28/2009 - 13.2 ng/mL

And, here's the CA15-3.

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
June 4 2009 - 19.7 U/mL
July 2 2009 - 22.1 U/mL
Aug 3 2009 - 29.7 U/mL
August 31 2009 - 31.9 U/mL
Oct 3 2009 - 38.7 U/mL
Nov 2 2009 - 36.4 U/mL
Nov 30 2009 - 38.5 U/mL
Dec 28 2009 - 37.5 U/mL

This is the fourth month that the CA15-3 has hovered in the same range - a good thing, I guess. The CEA, though, continues to rise slowly. When I asked Dr. K how he interpreted this a couple of weeks ago, his reply was, "it means that these numbers aren't really telling us anything". Sigh. I knew that, though.

In the meantime, the lymph nodes in my left armpit seem to be either getting a bit bigger or at least not getting smaller. It feels like I have a small egg under there. When I saw Dr. K a couple of weeks ago, he felt that between the tumor markers not going down and the swollen lymph nodes, it probably means that the current regimen (Tykerb and Femara) isn't doing the trick, so he was going to look into what my next option would be. We'll talk about that when I see him in two weeks.

Also, last week, as I felt around my right ribs where they are sore, I felt a small nodule, about the size of a grape, under the skin and under my right arm, just outside the reconstructed breast (the TRAM flap side). I showed it to the nurse the other day and she said she was going to call Dr. K and let him know. I'm going to call him today and see what he feels we should do. It could be a new tumor. Or, it could be calcifications from fractured ribs. It's not tender - not like the ribs - it's just there.

In the meantime, I had a nice long visit with Lisa, one of my first friends when we moved to Prineville when I was ten. I hadn't seen her since high school - we figured it had been at least 28 years since we last seen each other. We had a good visit - got caught up on where our lives were/are and then started chatting about where this person was or what happened to that person. It was fun and interesting . . . it was great to reconnect and I'm sure we'll see each other again. Gotta love Facebook!

Also, things are moving along with my family's move into my house. We've had discussions about what we're keeping and what we're getting rid of, etc. It's been kinda fun because we're reimagining how to use the space. Change is good. It's like the house is getting a bit of a facelift!