This Month's Muse

Well, we spent a week with multiple visits to multiple diagnostic areas at Good Samaritan Hospital this week, and here are the latest findings...
The Pros...
The first news we recieved was last Thursday, which was the blood work. My CEA level has dropped once again and is now at 3.6 down from 4.0. 0 to 3.4 is where I'd like to be/stay. That was great news.
Next was the liver lesions-Dr. Kenyon went over the scans with us, and I'm now down to three lesions from six at the last visit. They look "hypodense" and "may reflect inactive lesions", according to the doctor who read the scans. Yeah!!
Dr. Kenyon also reviewed the brain MRI with us, which was a little difficult, as the lesions there were so hard to even see. We couldn't remember where they had been, and finally Dr. K's trained eye found a tiny circled pinpoint-the radiologist had evidently circled it for us. According to the report, there are still two lesions, but are shrinking still, and there were no new lesions found. This is a huge blessing.
The questionable part of this whole thing (besides the liver being able to carry on and complete it's healing) is the bone involvement at this point. Evidently there was more than we had thought at first, which hadn't shown up in either of the last scans. I had shown 3 vertebrae affected last scan, and they are "lytic sclerotic" which I believe means that the cancer had made a hole in the bone (lytic) but the calcium deposits (sclerosis=hardening) indicated that the lesions were being healed. This is good. On this scan, however, new lesions appeared involving 8 more vertebrae-some are "blastic", meaning they were new, and some mixed. Dr. Kenyon's interpretation was that the chemo, etc, was working on the liver and breast, and it's also working on the bone as well-that's why the scerosis is happening. While I'm quite pleased with the liver/brain reductions, and I'm glad that the calcification is happening to stop the cancer growth, it is admittedly nerve wracking to have the added bone involvement. The report reads "progressive osseous metastatic disease to the spine." I definitely prefer the "hypodense, inactive" conclusion. I have this sense of the chemo and herbs having to chase the cancer around, and it is a cat and mouse thing. This is one area I don't want to be "progressive" in. Please be praying that everything works for good to stop this stuff!! They are giving me an injection of Zometa once a month for the bones, and this is supposed to have an anti-cancer effect on them. I just had the 2nd one this last Thursday, so my hope is that this will be taking effect along with everything else. Dr. Kenyon's attitude has been great, and I go back to the day when I was asking him about expectations re. my first scan after beginning chemo, and he said "there is always hope".

The other area of prayer we could use is for my Dad. He is coming into his last days, and will probably not last for another month or two. He has had prostate cancer for over 14 years, and has done amazingly well with it. His cancer was discovered in his bones in January of this year, and it had spread with a vengeance. We don't know how long it had been there. He has been bed ridden for about 2 months now, and requires more care, but still has a fantastic sense of humor, and his patience and kindness are still very intact. He's a great guy. If you could pray for peace, comfort, and healthy communication for our family, that would be appreciated. It is a hard time for everyone, and an easy time to "short circuit". Dad's walk with the Lord has been varied through his life, so if you could pray for his relationship to grow strong at this time as well, it would help. We will be traveling back and forth to Medford more frequently in this next season, and will need to guard against fatigue and illness (esp. for myself). My brother and his family will be coming from Texas to visit, and Pat's folks from Florida, so June will be a busy time.
All the kids piano and violin recitals/concerts are done now, and Dan's Special Olympic track meets (One left in July) are about done, so that helps a lot. We'll continue with dog 4-H through the summer, and the kids are planning on entering a variety of things in the fair, so we'll still be quite occupied. Hopefully just not on such a crazed level.
Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers,etc.-you are very loved.


Jeanne H.