Spring and renewed hope 🌷

Hello friends and family. We are well into March and you, like us, are experiencing the crazy weather that happens when Mother Nature is trying to change seasons. After a week of 60 degree temperatures, last week we got close to 17” of snow at our house and snow days from school (even the University closed for a day).

Anyway, I’m looking at spring as a time for renewal and new beginnings. I started a new medication in February and it appears to be working based on the blood work. I’m getting IV chemo called Enhertu. It takes about 3 hours to get all the various meds dripped into me. Fortunately I’m not having much in the way of serious side effects: fatigue, some neuropathy in my hands, and gas. So, not great but overall not a big deal.

I’ve talked a lot about the tumor marker CA 27-29. It’s a way to get some data about how well a particular treatment might be working. Oncologists don’t make treatment decisions on tumor marker data alone but it’s a good proxy.

My blood is drawn and sent off to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for analysis. The results show up in my medical portal a few days later.

A number below 38 indicates no active cancer.

When I was diagnosed in July 2019 my CA 27-29 was 122.

The number had been climbing the past year, yet my scans didn’t indicate any progression.

I peaked at almost 800.

My March number was 130! Yippee!

It’s clear from this chart of my tumor marker numbers that the cancer does not like the Enhertu chemo! Let’s hope that my scans in April confirm this.

Be well my friends. Onward!