Tumor markers have stabilized

I have just had my latest results come through from my 3 weekly blood tests and my tumor markers have not increased from my last test, still sitting at 60. This is good but still a concern. Dr K thinks it could be another tumor growing but not big enough to show up on the CT scan as yet, or its just the tumors in my liver being overactive, let’s hope for the latter. The chemo has hit me fairly hard this past cycle and I am just about to go back in tomorrow for another round. I suppose after 12 months of continuously being feed lethal noxious drugs which would kill an elephant you have to expect not to be doing cartwheels around the house. I will continue with the 24 tablets a day and hopefully find a cure to this dreadful disease before the chemo takes me. I have been researching and contacting various clinics to see if I could be suitable for a liver transplant and after exhausting all avenues the answer is no. main issue I have now been on chemo for so long the doctors tell me I am too higher risk due to my low immune system to operate and my body actually accepting the transplant. So my focus has now turned to how we can go about killing the tumors in my liver before they take over. I am going to pull out the wild card and contact the specialist in Melbourne and discuss options after my next CT scan in November, and there are some options of which some are still in trail stages but never the less seem to have good results so far.

Well fingers crossed I continue to see good results and hopefully in November have a plan in place to wipe out the enemy.

Sometimes I surprise myself with my positivity!!!!!!! This is one of my good days. I don’t blog on the bad ones. Bye for now.

12 months to the day since diagnosed with this life changing disease.

I find it hard to believe myself it was 12 months ago since I sat in the Dr Michael Ryan’s office on the Sunshine Coast after a routine check up to be told I had Cancer and had between 6 to 24 months to live.

So what did I do????? Firstly I did not accept the fact I was going to die. Yes the statistics tell me otherwise, but all research seems to be on older patients and less fit than I was. Life needed to go on and not just “go home and get my affairs in order” as it was so nicely put to me. So you would think I would have just gone back to my regular way of life and set about beating this disease. No, we as a family transferred to Darwin and I took on a huge task of getting 2 of the largest Hotels in the group back on track. Now when I look back on this period it was really intense. Meghan had to leave a job she loved, Sam had to move out of an Early learning Centre he was very happy at and we had to pack everything up and move to a city we virtually knew nothing about. Twelve months later and I feel it was the right decision. It has been the toughest period of my life and obviously for Meghan as well. She didn’t count on marrying a cancer patient! So diagnosed with stage 4a cancer. Bowel tumor and a liver riddled with lesions. Not much hope given from the medical profession. Now I have beaten the bowel tumor and the liver lesions have been reducing on a slow but steady basis. Overall I have coped well I think and have had good results. I’m still here and that has to be a good thing. In medical terms I am “stable”, which means I can expect to live for a while yet. I can now focus on not just surviving but actually beating the cancer. I am a realist and know I will have to live with this for the rest of my life even if I go into remission there will always be the chance of it returning. The upside to all this, if there can be one is I have a whole different perspective on life and if it wasn’t life threatening I would recommend it to everyone. I won’t go through my new take on life, just to say I enjoy every day, and day to day issues are no longer relevant. How’s this for a crazy statement. I am now more relaxed in my day to day life than I have ever been!!!!

So enough for now as you will all get bored and continue surfing the net. Just a quick update from my previous blog. CT scans came back showing more lesions than the PET scan but they have reduced from the last CT scan so still heading the right direction.  Biggest worry at present is my tumor blood markers have increased again to 60 and no one can tell me why. Again I thank everyone who has supported me over the last 12 months as it keeps me focused on beating this disease.