Hello. We're back from the infusion center and Mark begins his 46 hour infusion with the 5FU. He is doing well all things considered. We had a good visit with Dr. Farmer today. Mark's CEA number was 3.4 which is only slightly higher than previously, but not worrisome. We will see mild fluctuations, but as long as we're not trending back up we're OK. We still have not heard about Pittsburgh. That will determine most of the next part of Mark's treatments. We'll continue chemo at least through round 12 as long as all goes well. If they will do surgery in Pittsburgh, we'll have to stop Avastin 5-6 weeks before surgery, but we should be able to continue the other chemo drugs until a week or two before surgery. If Pittsburgh says no, we'll have to start planning surgery in Birmingham to remove at least the primary tumor. Either way, it looks like surgery will be in the works for Mark.
We met a couple today at the center who are facing the same problems we are. He has the same diagnosis and areas of metastasis that Mark has and is now 2 1/2 years into the chemo. He is doing well and looks great. We got to spend some time discussing our stories. It was very inspiring to see him doing so well that far into treatment. He had his primary tumor removed before starting chemo, but other than that the stories are similar. He is on the same chemo regimen as Mark. Dr. Farmer told us today that we can stay on the oxaliplatin for as long as Mark can tolerate it without having too much peripheral neuropathy.
We are hoping and praying for a good week on chemo. We have basketball games, end of year parties, baseball tournaments and Colton's birthday coming up this week and we hope Mark can participate as much as possible.
Still no word from the genetics testing. Mark's sister is scheduled for a colonoscopy this week. Say a prayer that all is normal. God bless!!!
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