New CEA score

My cancer score came down again this week. It is now 10.1. YEAH!!! I was pretty worried that it was going to go up which is not good. So the yucky chemo is working it's trick. I just figured out that I have had my 18th treatment since learning of the colon cancer a little over a year ago. On my way to 20. Hopefully then we can back off treatments a little and have the CEA score stabalize a little.

Feeling Good

Mike told me I needed to blog about my night last night. Yesterday I was feeling pretty good. I went to lunch and to the library and did some things around the house but I was still a little weak. I went to bed feeling really good and woke up at 2 a.m. excited about my day today and that I was going to feel really good. So I laid there for a little while going over what my day was going to be like. I finally had to take another Ativan (my anti-anxiety pill that turns my brain off at night) and read a book to get drowsy enough to go back to sleep. I woke up this morning feeling great and excited to be feeling good.

Hope you all have a great day too!!

More good news!!

I got my cancer score today and it is at 14. It is going in the right direction. YEAH!!! I feel yucky but at least I have some comfort in knowing the yuckiness is working.

Good News!!

Today I finally had some good news. My PET scan came back normal with no traceable signs of the disease. This means that the tumor on my abdominal wall is not growing and is basically gone. The CAT scan showed the liver spots. The smaller one is almost gone and the larger one is half the size it was in July. So this means my chemo is working. The doctor is still a little worried about my CEA (cancer score) being 25 and that it went up from 21 two weeks before. I get another score on Thursday so I hope it goes down. We look at direction on this score and it should be a low number.
It is late at night and I have the munchies. Happens during the first chemo week. I think it is because I just have a little something every 3 hours instead of bigger meals. So cereal is my choice of munchy tonight and feels like it did the trick. good night.

Make A Wish Weekend

Sorry about the month long absence. I have a lot to update and I'll do some past updates but I wanted to hurry and get this post in while I feel so good.

This past weekend was my Make A Wish weekend. My wish was that I wanted to go to the cabin with all my siblings and spouses without the kids and of course my parents. We had the best time ever. We were there for 3 days and 2 nights. My sister in law Kristi Ann with the help of Andrew designed Marianne t-shirts for everyone. It says Marianne (faith, hope, love).
We played lots and lots of games. Settlers, 5 Crowns, Quiddler, Dominoes, Rook, Canasta, The Game (Mike's card game), Snorta, Nertz and the Great Dalmuti. Somehow we only ended up with this one picture of game playing.

The brothers and their wives went on a hike to Mount Baldy. Everyone made it safe and sound and they dedicated their hike to me. While they were hiking, the sisters, Mike and my parents went to breakfast at Whistlin Jacks which has been a long time tradition. It was yummy especially since everything was swimming in hollandaise sauce. It ended up being both breakfast and lunch for us.

I had given my mom and sisters necklaces when we went to the beach earlier this year in March which was our celebration trip that my chemo was over. The necklaces have come to mean something different since the terminal diagnosis and so I surprised the sister in laws with their "Marianne" necklaces.
The highlight of the trip which we didn't really get any pictures of because it was dark was our fireside/testimony meeting. We had a big campfire and went around and talked about cabin memories and why we love being there so much. The spirit was strong and we bore our testimonies and there was lots of laughter and lots of tears. I think we will all remember that night. When we were done, they surprised me with a movie they had made of my life. Jared did a ton of work on it and it was perfect. The music and photos were carefully selected and it means so much to me. I love my family and am grateful that we were able to have a couple days of what I envision heaven to be like.

We've even talked about Make A Wish 2 but I don't know how we can make it any better.

Tomorrow I head back to a chemo treatment but I have new scans that will hopefully shed light on what the cancer is doing inside of me.