Hey everyone! We are still here, we have just had a couple of busy and challenging weeks. I am sorry it has been a few weeks since my last blog. We have gotten some calls of concern about what was going on. The last time I blogged was on September 21; my tumor marker had come back down to 3852 and I was awaiting results from a blood draw taken that day. Those results revealed the HCG had gone back up to 18977. Then at the end of the week it was up over 24,000, but the following Monday in New York they were down to just over 20,000. I received treatment that day and then had my tumor marker checked the following Thursday, October 1, and my HCG had dropped down to 7852. That is the latest info that we have. The roller coaster tumor marker ride continues to roll on. I am headed to Ann Arbor today and will have it checked once again, then it is back to New York on Monday for the final treatment of the second round. I suspect that my tumor marker will be back up if it continues to follow the pattern, but I also have a CT scan scheduled for next Friday. Hopefully that will provide us with some explanation of what these numbers mean, and I am confident it will be good news.

It has been a challenging couple of weeks watching these numbers go up and down, because there does appear to be an upward trend with the numbers. The low numbers get higher each time, and the high numbers get even higher. These are the highest numbers I have seen since last fall. That is discouraging and scary. At the same time, we don't know what they mean. That also makes it scary, but it also means that we shouldn't spend much time worrying about it until we do know what it means. That is often easier said than done. The reality is that we don't have enough information to assess what is happening. We have tumor marker numbers that make no sense to anyone. We have a CT scan from after the first round that show some sign of necrosis, which is encouraging. I can also say that I am feeling good. The chemo is taking a greater toll on me, as is the travelling. Last week I was wiped out for the week, which is why you didn't see me posting to the blog. So it is sometimes hard to judge how I am feeling, but when I think back to how I felt last year at this time, I am feeling tremendously better. I was miserable last October. At this time I was coughing uncontrollably, I could not eat, and I was undergoing tests to figure out what was causing it. At this point I was gearing up for the wonderful experience that is a colonoscopy! This year, I have a lot of fatigue, and I alternate between weeks of feeling great, and feeling terrible, but that is due to the chemo. What does this mean? I have made great progress in the last year. I don't know exactly what is happening with this treatment yet, but I can say without any doubt that I am better today than I was last October. That is progress, that is undeniable, and there are no numbers than can change that!