30%!

I had my six-week CT scan on Monday...the scan that would let us in on if the study drug was helping to prolong my life and slow down the cancer that has been making it's way through my lymph nodes and bone marrow.

Sometimes I'm nervous before scans...afraid of what changes may be headed our way when the results are read.  Sometimes I'm calm.  Whatever is going on in my body is going on whether I have a scan or not.  I can't change it.  I can just adapt to it.  But this scan had me directly in the nervous section.  Thankfully, when you see your Oncologist enter your room with a beautiful smile on his face (followed immediately by the beautiful smile of my nurse, followed by the beautiful smile of my study coordinator), those fears tend to evaporate a bit.

The scan showed that my lymph node tumors had just under a 30% reduction in size!!!

The lymph node tumors are easier to read because they are made out of soft tissue.  It's harder to read through bone and quantify the density and quantity of cancer in bone marrow, but judging by the fact that my bone pain has been reduced so dramatically, we can bet that good things are going on there too.

These are very good findings.  My cancer is very aggressive, and the fact that it has not only stopped advancing, but reversed in nature is promising.  And then you throw on the fact that I was taken off the drug for a couple of weeks because of my low blood counts, and it still has been working this well, and that makes it even better.  And then you add on the fact that most studies don't even test/scan at six weeks because it's considered so early in the treatment and your body is still getting adjusted to everything that's going on, and that continues to make it better.  And THEN add on the fact that I couldn't keep down any of the oral water substance that they needed me to drink to assist in the enhanced contrast for the CT (with the nauseousness I've been experiencing lately, anything, especially beverages, on an empty stomach, tend to come right back up).  So the reading of the CT was done on a conservative level because the contrast wasn't as easily readable.  Add that in there and an almost 30% reduction in size sounds so, so sweet.  It's six more weeks handed to me!

Where We Go From Here
My blood counts allowed me to stay at the dosage I'm currently at on the study drug (thanks to a timely Neupogen shot that boosted my white blood cells) and we're still playing it week-by-week, based on my blood counts.  We're getting closer to finding the dosage level that my body can tolerate for a longer expanse of time.  After six more weeks on the study drug I will have another CT scan and a bone scan, and at that time we will re-evaluate how my body and the cancer is responding.

Thank you so, so, SO much for the warm thoughts and heart-felt prayers.  Thank you to Gene and Mary for watching the kids (and washing my floors, dusting, and doing laundry!  Isn't watching three kids enough?!  You guys amaze me!)  Thank you to everyone that is helping us with meals and donations.  Thank you to Jill and Chuck for letting us crash overnight at the drop of a hat (and cooking four-course meals for us, and staying up past bedtime, laughing with us.)

We love you all.

The Future:  Looks Beautiful!