Postby jsbsf » Tue Nov 05, 2019 10:25 pm
It has not yet been 3 months, but today DH had an ultrasound after his 3rd round of FOLFOX (10/29).
His 2 liver mets grew pretty aggressively between 8/23 and 10/4. First treatment was on 9/30. On 10/4 the larger met was just under 4cm. The smaller one “grew substantially” from its original 7mm.
As a side note, CEA went from 4.1 to 12.5 on 10/13, 2 days before the 2nd treatment. So yes it went up. But two days before the 3rd treatment, 10/27 it was down to 4.7.
Today’s ultrasound was to determine if we’d need to do surgery sooner rather than later, to see if treatment was working.
The doctor was thrilled that both mets are already almost 2/3 smaller, and what remains includes scar tissue.
We don’t know about the colon tumor. It had not changed in size between 8/23 and 10/4, so today’s ultrasound did not pertain to it. However, before 8/23 there was a lot of pain during a bowel movement that would last over an hour. This pain stopped altogether after a couple weeks. We are thinking it was because of supplements we learned about on this forum and began taking regularly before chemo. At this point, there was only discomfort that started about 10 minutes after a bowel movement.
That discomfort completely subsided shortly after the first round of chemo.
Here is something else. It’s a little graphic, so I apologize for that. On Sunday night, he reported that his “bowel movement” was not brown, but was a dark white color. When he examined it, it was about 2 inches long and about the circumference of a pencil at both ends, almond shaped, about twice as wide in the middle. I am almost certain this was the actual tumor or a substantial piece of it.
The next day he says his pee flow was much more normal than it had been in a while. He thinks some pressure was relieved, and that makes me more certain it was the tumor. I believe the FOLFOX treatment has been working very well.
DH 61
2019 4A t3 n2 m1a
8/23 C-scopy, 5+cm mass. CEA:4.1
9/16 MSS. MRI: 2 lvr mets: 2.7 & 7mm
9/30 Start FOLFOX 1-6
10/4 Lg lvr met ~3.7cm, pri tmr stable.
CEA: 10/13,12.5;10/27-12/8 btw 4.7 & 3.1
11/5 both lvr mets ~ 2/3 smaller.
12/17 PET: significant improv.
2020
MWA 2/5, Lap resection 2/11
CEA: 3/1-5/31 btw 2.1&2.9
3/2 start FOLFOX 7-12
7/23-29 EBRT
10/2/2020 NED/W&W
4/2022 EUS-FNA,MRI: recur.;
5/2022:CT scan no mets. APR.
7-12/2023 Xeloda
4/2023 CT/MRI NED