It's been awhile since I've updated you on my health and blogged on much of anything. So here's a recap of the last month or so.
Everything was going on as normal with the chemo with the normal ups and downs till about three weeks ago then the cumulative effects pretty well caught up with me and I was getting pretty miserable. Nothing earth shattering or new, the fatigue was just much more intense and continuous.
I told the doc about this last week and he decided to put me on ritalin. I sort of cracked up at the thought since you usually associate ritalin with unfocused kids and teenagers. But he said this should help give me some energy back so it was worth a try. I've been on it now for about 4 days and the difference is night and day - I feel almost normal. Still tired, but almost normal.
One of my biggest struggles through this whole thing has been my fear of becoming drug dependent and so I still don't like it that I need the ritalin to get me up and going (I also need drugs to help me get to sleep) but this stuff does help me function and the medical folks tell me not to worry about it, so for now I'll stick with it.
I'd be curious if there are any folks out there from the nouthetic school of thought who have any opinions on me and my drug usage. This stuff not only helps me physically but it definitely elevates my mood.
On the cancer front the news is still good - in fact today I got some very good news. My CEA's are down. CEA is a blood marker for colon cancer, it's a kind of protein that colon cancer throws off that offers one indication on how things are going. I started off somewhere in the mid 50's, then it went down into the mid 40's and has stayed around 46 or 47 for probably the last 8-10 weeks. My latest CEA reading is 37 so that's a pretty significant improvement. This gives me great hope that I'll be able to go off the chemo soon because I'm getting pretty sick of it.
I do have a CT Scan next week so we'll find out if the tumors are still shrinking, I'm praying that is so.
And the good news is that regardless of how it's going, they are giving me a "drug holiday" in June so I can go to General Assembly. And this won't affect my status in the clinical trial I'm in. So I'll look forward to seeing all of my PCA buddies in Orlando in June.
Thanks again for your prayers.
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