Good News

Me at my post-surgical pre-second-round best.

Good news. I didn’t think the day I went back to chemotherapy would be a good day, but it really was. I had a PET scan, the first post-surgery, on Wednesday. Also checked my blood again and the CA-125 marker had dropped on its own from 193 to 118. Still too high (normal is under 35) but a very good sign– sometimes, I hear anecdotally, surgery will cause it to rise.

Better, though, was when my oncologist came in to give us the PET results and said the results were “good.” He has never been that unqualified about a scan result before. There was no visible thickening of the lung lining– because it is unreachable by surgery without opening the chest, it will always be the lung we are watching. “No evidence of residual disease” was the pronouncement on the whole scan. And while he spun the image around to show me nothing in the bones, nothing anywhere, I tried to see my organs– what was still there and what was missing. I couldn’t see anything, though, except my normal glowing kidneys and bladder. And that is good news.

This means for my last two rounds of chemotherapy (we need to bring that number down and get any microscopic or otherwise too-small-to-scan traces) I will be on a “lighter” second-line drug, in combination with the nasty Carboplatin. The Carbo has been very effective. We have cut out the Taxol, mostly because my neuropathy in my feet remains severe. I am getting used to it, but my feet are still completely numb/tingly all the time.

I got my first dose Thursday, and today am feeling the positive effects of that pre-treat steroid dose. More good news is that I won’t have to take steroids the day before, as that was to treat my allergy to Taxol. Best of all, though, in the 3-week cycle I get the 3rd week off, no treatment. Time for the blood cell counts to revive and then the one last shot of Carbo + Gemza, one solo Gemza, and we hope I will be done for a long time. The oncologist said, presuming the CA-125 goes back to normal (it was at 18 in August), we enter a time of “watchful waiting.” This is him reminding me that I am Stage IV, even if the surgeon staged me back to IIIC. In any event, I hope for a long, long stretch of watchful waiting with good numbers and no thickening of the lung lining.

This will be a two-post day. I want to separate the recipe from the health news. But I’ve taken advantage of this steroid day to refill the larder and fridge and freezer for what lies ahead, do some laundry, and cook up a great pot of chili!