Well, we got mixed results from the tests today. Mark's CT/PET scan turned out okay. They did not see any "hot" areas of disease or metastasis. It all looked pretty normal. They see some scarring around the liver probably from the chemo wash after surgery. However, the CEA (cancer marker in the blood) was elevated at 16 (normal is less than 3). There could be microscopic disease that doesn't show up yet or a false positive reading on the CEA number. Dr. Farmer feels it is safe to wait 2 weeks and return for blood work and see what the trend in the CEA is. If it is going up, we have to start back on chemo pretty quickly. If it isn't, we may decide to do exploratory surgery to see what the abdomen looks like and see if there is any cancer showing up that is not seen on the scan.
Dr. Farmer is going to send copies of both the scans and the labs to the Drs. in Pittsburgh to get their opinions as well. We will see what they say.
Pray hard these next few weeks that the CEA number falls drastically and that it is just a false positive lab test. We really need a zero to come back on our next one.
Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive during Mark's cancer battle. We have appreciated all the love and care. God bless!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment