As you all know, I had these new satellite tumors growing in and around the wound. I counted as many as 17 or 18 today. So, I knew my CEA tumor marker would go up. I thought it would by a few points, but instead it went up to 17.1.
Crap. Lost a lot of ground in the last month. My theory again is that Abraxane worked as long as I had a bunch of Herminator-2 cells running around. However, Abraxane is a non-discriminating chemotherapy - it kills bad as well as good cells. So, my lovely Herminator-2 cells have been knocked down by Abraxane - a couple of weeks ago, it was about 1/3 of what it was at the beginning of October. Today, my white blood cell count went back up - it doubled from two weeks ago - but it's still not the strength that's needed.
So, it was necessary to bring in something new - I'm glad we added Herceptin today with the new CEA number. I'm not out of the woods yet. I need to recommit to not eating sugar or processed foods and to practicing qigong and meditation more. I need to do whatever I can to help my body knock out the cancer. I think the high CEA today was a message to tell me to not rest on my laurels . . . or to rely too much on just one thing, like the Abraxane.
It also means starting to say no again to things at work, including any kind of long distance travel. The farthest I want to go is Hawaii or Alaska. I need to stay close to home and rest. I need to keep my life as unstressful as possible. A couple of new things cropped up at work today and it made me feel overwhelmed. So, it's time to retreat.
I expect that I won't sleep well tonight. I might use the time to write and get a bit ahead with work projects. So, I got a plan.
Here's the CEA history:
Anyway, here is the history:
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
3/8/2010 - 22.9 ng/mL
4/22/2010 - 28.9 ng/mL
6/7/2010 - 46.3 ng/mL
7/19/2010 - 44.3 ng/mL
8/19/2010 - 50.9 ng/mL
10/05/2010 - 41.6 ng/mL
11/04/2010 - 7.1 ng/mL
12/03/2010 - 3.4 ng/mL
12/30/2010 - 17.1 ng/mL
Sigh. No rest for the wicked, huh?
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Darnit!! Not surprised, though
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2 comments:
Hi Dee (or should I say "Hi Herceptin Buddy?),
I am so upset that you are having some negative results after all the work you have put in towards your recovery. I am glad that you are reducing some of the stressors in you life. Take care and I so hope your Herceptin knocks out those cancer invaders.
Joanna
Hi Joanna,
I expected the number to go up, but not by that much, so I was a little bit bummed myself. Yes, after all that hard work. It means that I can't let my guard down. Not yet. Sigh. On the other hand, I got two boxes in the mailed today - one from the mom of a former boyfriend back in my undergrad days (she and I stayed i touch over the years) and another from a classmates mom, who was my hostess on one of my trips to Seattle. I ended up with several new hats, a lap robe, a shawl, and a scarf! So, even though there was bad news, I was also reminded of how many people are out there supporting me. I am thankful for that!
BTW, Joanna, that includes you! Yes, we are Herceptin buddies yet again! Thanks for being there!
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