Sunday, June 26, 2016

Where It's At (or, more properly, At Where It Is)

After lots of tests, I saw the cancer doc this past week and had some more tests run, and just heard back from him on Friday. To place into perspective, the cancer was at its highest (and hardest) point ever in late January, five months ago. The cancer has now been reduced to about 1/6 of that level (from 4.5 to 0.8 on my cancer's scale), but the medicine we have been using is no longer be effective at reducing it. The cancer has leveled off, is no longer decreasing, and actually showed a slight increase this past time. The cancer doc has therefore decided to stop current treatment, and place me on lower dose on the medication (40% of current dose, and dropping the accompanying steroid treatment), with the goal being to limit future growth rather than attempting to drive the cancer down any lower. Next time it reaches an "unacceptable" level, we'll have to try some other medication, but at least now there are some other medicines out there. This is a marathon, not a sprint, full of strategic moves and counter-moves, and we knew from the outset it would hopefully be a long haul. Thanks, as always, for your prayers and encouragement.