There are many team Rachel supporters
I've been getting lots of help up to this point. My favorite is getting help with changing sheets as changing the duvet is one of my least favorite chores. My parents retired last year and are in Florida and won't be here until Thanksgiving. However my brother lives in the city and I have many friends who will check in on me throughout the recovery.
Last Friday, I completed the presurgical testing. It consisted of an EKG, labs, speaking with the anesthesia NP, etc. In addition the regular labs, they measured clotting factors and some other things but long story short, I'm cleared for surgery. My CEA dropped two points also. Since April, my CEA has been rising. It's leveled off in the last three months but still high and this is the first time it's been lower by more than one point. Oncologist says it should drop after surgery. Even though my scans have been stable, I can't help but wonder if they're just missing something. Last thing I need to do is see the stoma nurse which I will do tomorrow to get marked but otherwise, I just have to wait for surgery day and take care of myself until then.
If this is of any encouragement at all, my husband’s lymph nodes were noticeably smaller post surgery. He did a CT scan 5 weeks after his surgery and right before chemo.
This is definitely encouraging! I have enlarged nodes that have been stable so I just figured they've reached the limit of how much they can shrink. I wonder why, if he didn't have chemo between the surgery and the post surgery scan, the nodes shrank? Regardless, hope I'll have the same result.