One Year Today!!!!!! UPDATE

July 8, 2004

Hi All!

Well, it was exactly one year ago today that my Bert was diagnosed

with stage III right colon cancer. Surgery took place that was

supposed to be a " piece of cake " and 7 hours later, the results

turned out quite different. It has been a year of both great joys

and much anxiety, tears, and scares....but he's here and I'm so

grateful. To recap, Bert had his last chemo today!!!!! We started

back in August of 2003 on 5fu/leuc, every week, for six weeks, two

weeks off, and then back again. This continued and was stopped only

once for an additional week off when Bert was hospitalized with a

sever colon infection. We switched oncologists in early January

(best move we ever made....thanks again Jodi XXXOOOO) located at the

USC Cancer Center who immediately added oxaliplatin to the cocktail,

but cycle was changed, overall doseage increased and administered

differently. From the get go, we have had very few problems with

this regime....minor ones yes and several that were resolved simply

by coming to this board for answers. Now today, as I said before,

Bert had his last treatment after completing another 6 months....so

all in all, 10 months/11 months total. He will be having full and

complete scans (PET as well as CAT) again on June 22 (just 8 weeks

since his last set that were all clear) and results will be related

to when we see his oncologist again on June 28. If there will be any

further course of action, we will know at that time....Dr. Lenz did

mention something about " maintenance chemo " (don't know what the heck

that is....anybody out there know?????) but for now, Bert is

technically done. CEA was up again a little bit...Dr. is now pretty

much convinced that it's Bert's reaction to chemo...remember, six

weeks of and a big 3 point drop....two treatments later, up from 6.0

to 6.5...makes sense because they have literally turned Bert inside

out and can't find anything (YIPEEEEEE YAHOOOOO WAY TO GO!!!!!)but he

has assured both Bert and I that he will remain vigilant because he

still doesn't like the numbers (way to go doc!).

As for me, all I can say is I'm glad we've come this far and I know

we have a long way to go. I could not have made it through this

first year dealing with both my mom and my husband without the

endless support from you wonderful folks and I will always be

grateful. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. Please keep us in

your prayers as you will all remain in mine.

Lots of hugs,

Monika

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