Steve's Care Page

I have completed 5 rounds of the 8 of chemo and I will complete my 6th round tommrow. It looks like I'm 45 days out of completing all of the chemo and my last infusion is about 30 days away. While this seems like a short time, time for me has slowed down.  It is a blessing that I can work half time as this gives me the ability to move though time faster by having something to focus on. It is hard because I'm balancing my inability to work vs. ,when I feel stronger, boredom.  This is difficult as it seems that my ability is more varied during the two week cycle.  As an example, I had a 3 hour meeting last week and did not think to bring snacks. I was wiped at the end of the meeting and did not feel better until after I ate.  In talking with my doctor, they are going to reduce the chemo drugs I'm on by 20% for the remaining three rounds. This is due to some of the cumulative side effects.  This won't affect my outcome. I'm also going to talk to some specialists...

Yesterday I received the radiology read on the PETscan. The radiologist stated that there were no indications of cancer from the scan and that the lit up section was indicative of a normal uptake of the dye. Now if there are small amounts of cancer, there can be false positives because of the uptake. Basically there is a chance that my cancer is functionally dead except for micro spots.  The radiologist correctly reports my acid re-flux. It also mentions the  thyroid  nodule and states that my spleen is a bit bigger. This may be because my spleen is also trying to make up for low blood counts. Here is a link to see the results of the PETscan: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A7BEBOJ4TQj9XYZ6J8uurzUQzSSbNuew/view?usp=sharing In talking to the doctor the highest chance of a re-lapse and death is the spreading of these micro spots around my body. Therefore, it is the best course of action to continue on the additional four sessions of chemotherapy because I'm healthy and...

It has been a long time since an update. I now have new information to share. Yesterday we had two important events. The first was a PET scan to see how effective the chemotherapy is progressing and the second was an appointment with my surgeon to discuss biopsy results. First, I don't have the formal results from the radiologist. I can compare the PET scan from November to the one yesterday. It looks like my tumor is much much smaller. You can compare it in the picture below:  These pictures are a cross section of my chest while I'm laying on my back.  The picture on the right is from November and the one on the left is from yesterday. A PET scan shows cancer in a glowing section. Because this is an esophagus there is a small dark hole in the center. You can see how much smaller it is. The not completely bright sections don't indicate cancer, just that other organs pick up the dye during the procedure. I circled the tumor in red. Second, we had an appointment w...