What should I do???

[claudine]

Well, dang. I was all happy about good scan, and this morning they released DH's CEA value and it's 24.1ng. The highest it's been for him since they found the adrenal met in January 2019, so almost two years ago... CEA values tend to be good indicators for him.
Yet, the scan hasn't shown anything except, of course, that there's still a large lytic met in his L4 (the original met).
DH does not look at his report - so he doesn't know. What should I do? Call the onc? DH has been in such a great mood lately, and I tend to trust his onc, I'm thinking that he would have called if he felt that something had to be done before the next scan in December. But if the L4 met is very active again, maybe we should get ahead and look into repeat SBRT (which worked quite well last time, but it's not local, so it takes some prep and organizing).
ARG!!!

[claudine]

I couldn't just sit there... Called and left a message asking his onc to call me back. So we'll see.

[claudine]

... And he called back. He's of course concerned about the high value; but everything else looks great (scan, lab, DH's stamina, etc). And DH's history so far isn't that of an aggressive cancer; it just won't quit and keeps coming back. Onc doesn't see the point of putting DH back on chemo right now, let him enjoy feeling good, and see what the next scan shows... I guess I can roll with that.

[stu]

Hi ,
Yikes that’s so hard . But given nothing is showing and no action is being taken why take that away from him . Today matters as much as tomorrow. I would let him enjoy it too.
Take special care of yourself too!
Stu

[Siti]

Yes indeed that’s worrying but since nothing can be seen in the scan, there’s no action that can be taken. I think it’s a good idea to let him feel good, and I hope you take care of yourself too.

[claudine]

Ignorance is bliss, right? I wish I hadn't looked at those damn CEA numbers, but so it goes. But yes, the onc said that until something does show up, there's not much to do. Enjoy life I guess! I'm fortunate to have a large network of friends, and two beautiful children - young adults really, 20 and 23, and with each day that goes by they're getting more and more settled in their own lives, which is a blessing.

I will apply my own mind therapy and try to forget about this disease for a while, meaning that I probably won't be visiting the forum much... Until the next scan. I hope everyone stays sane and as healthy as is possible, given everything.

[Lee]

Wait & see can be very hard at times. Scary is good word to use. I had to do that once. I was about 3 yrs out, a CAT scan picked up a couple of swollen nodes in my stomach area. I was ready to freak out. Onc said she was not worried, more than likely since I had 2 school age kids, one them brought some germ home. My body was doing it's job & fighting it off. Guess everything else was fine which was a big reason why she was not worried. On the next CAT scan, all was fine.

Hope all goes well.

Lee