Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Watch and wait

I did get my blood test results, and while they seem to be showing a flattening out of the liver enzymes, the numbers didn't drop enough to keep me on the trial. So I'm officially off. Where does that leave me? That's not entirely clear. For now, I will keep checking the liver status on a weekly basis. I'll also be getting another MRI in early January to see where things stand. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Liver? Why I hardly....

Humor is always helpful when the news is not ideal. I had another blood test today, and just found out that my liver numbers are even higher than last week. Not to the point where I need to be worried about my liver (yet), but it definitely makes it more likely that I'll get kicked off the trial soon. I'm set up for another blood test on Monday as per request by Dr. B, though in my mind, if it didn't drop over the last week, then it's not likely to drop in that short of a time either (yes, my jaded opinion). He did mention that there have been patients in other trials who have had the same side effect and unfortunately it took them several months to drop back down. Of course, I was hoping to be one of those patients whose numbers dropped back to normal in a week or two.

As for other options, the current response from the team is that with a liver issue like this it is not quite a safe time to start Avastin or to have surgery (with anesthesia). The Avastin option was to make this "tumor" disappear, while the surgery was to determine whether it was a tumor after all. I wasn't really looking to do either of those unless there was a growing tumor, so if I do get kicked off this trial, my likely choice might just be to wait until my next MRI and see where we stand (readers' opinions are welcome).

Either way, there will be more discussion after the next blood draw. As he mentioned, it's a day to day process right now, with options and decisions all dependent on the liver numbers.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

No change is good change!

Just came back from the latest MRI (which stands for "Most Reasonable Interpretation"). The white spot basically looks the same as the last time. There's still a little more information to gather, but for the most part, I felt good about the results. The next likely step is to get back onto the trial as soon as my liver cooperates. This will hopefully be confirmed tomorrow after Dr. B presents at the Tumor Board and my blood test returns negative. Of course, I'm still in "monitor mode" and will likely have another MRI in 4 weeks or so. However, it is possible that this "thing" will stay dormant for a long time, and I would be perfectly accepting of that as long as it doesn't impose itself!

Overall I guess it was not quite as good as I'd hoped for, but WAY better than I envisioned!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Another slight glitch

I just found out that the chemo I'm on has negatively effected my liver, so I've been temporarily "removed". (I swear, mom, it wasn't alcohol!) Next week, when I go in for my MRI, I'll also get some more blood and urine tests and we'll see where things stand. Unfortunately this adds more grey to the situation, since one of the explanations for the potential recurrence was the period of time when I was off chemo due to the swelling...which was going to be "clarified" in my next MRI.