Well today being my 33rd birthday, I celebrated in style with a surgical check-up and CEA test.
Results four months ago 4.0; today 4.1. Surgeon said it's an insignificant change and not to worry. 3.4 is his accepted "normal" level, but he said individuals often have a higher baseline.
I've had some abdominal pains which he believes are related to the hernia repair sutures; he said "not cancer related" which is all I care about. He was pleased with how my hernia repair is looking
.
I discussed T stage. According to Mr. Keating, T4a (spread to outside of colon) has worse outcomes than T4b (spread to nearby organs).
Why?
Because T4a has shown the ability to move laterally away from the primary tumour site; giving it the opportunity to break off and float into the abdominal cavity.
Whereas T4b is just the result of the tumour expanding locally... less aggressive, "dumb" spread, statistically less likely to result in distal metastasis.
My CT is booked for January 2016, which will be 26 months post-op.
Peace to all
EDIT: also, Keating told me low dose aspirin is becoming more recognised as a useful adjuvant therapy, and wrote me a script.