Trouble, mystery and irony

I just returned to Dallas tonight after a rough week in Houston. Wednesday's lab work showed a CEA a about the same level (10.0), so it is indeed elevated. To be sure, this was quite discouraging. I wrestled with whether to ask Christine to come down because I knew how hard it would be for her and figured she would come if I needed her. I decided to ask her Wednesday evening and she caught the last flight down to Houston that night to be with me in spite of her own pain. Waiting for her and meeting her late that night at Hobby Airport reminded me of our courting days, when we lived in different cities and spent what money we had on plane tickets - money that was worth it when we saw each other in the terminal. In between all the appointments and tests, we had a wonderful time together - talking, comforting each other, praying, reading Scripture, laughing. And it made the trip back to Dallas much more enjoyable (although I still had to look at Pillsbury Sam-boy). The week was rough on her physically, but I'm really glad she came.

We met with Dr. Vauthey and Dr. Hoff together Wednesday morning. They only had preliminary results from my liver/abdomen CT scan. They saw no evidence of tumors to explain the high CEA. But they gave the disclaimer that the radiologist is better at examining the scans and his report had not yet been written. While no cancer was apparent, they did notice that the veins around my spleen were quite enlarged. Both Dr. Hoff and Dr. Vauthey were very perplexed by this and said they had not seen anything like it before. (One friend told me later in response, "see what a special guy you are, Greg!") Every week there is some sort of MDACC oncologist conference in which they participate, and on April 14th the conference will have some outside "experts" attending. So Dr. Vauthey decided they will discuss my case at the conference on that day to determine how to further investigate this blood vessel mystery.

Meanwhile, my doctors called for two things as a result of these findings. One, they had me take a CT scan Wednesday night of my lungs to see if anything evil is going on there. The official results of this and Tuesday's scan should be ready Friday. Two, they told me to stop the chemo. There is some chance that the Xeloda can cause some elevation of the CEA due to liver toxicity. So after three weeks of no Xeloda, we'll retake the CEA. If the number is down - terrific. If not, and if this is a recurrence of cancer, then the Xeloda is not working anyway so it is not useful to be taking it. They wouldn't really address any what-if's because there are too many uncertainties right now. So we wait.

The short term positive of all this is that for the first time in almost a year, I will be off chemo and not recovering from some major surgery. I'll probably appear and feel as healthy as I have in a long time. Such is the irony of cancer.