Great News

GREAT NEWS!  Praise the Lord!  Thank you Jesus!

There were two large tumors/lesions in my liver and there were many multiple, diffuse, scattered smaller lesions in the liver.  Now, there is only one tumor and it has shrunk by a third!  The other large tumor/lesion is gone!  All of the other multiple scattered cancerous lesions are gone!  "Resolved" is how the doctor worded it.  The esophagus is also showing signs of healing with the tumor shrinking considerably.  The esophageal cancer has never been especially concerning to the doctors.  They were always more focused on the liver.  The esophageal tumor has shrunk so much that the stent that was placed has now shifted downward because it is no longer butting up against the tumor.

Praise God!  The doctor and his nurse were practically giddy today with sharing this wonderful news.   The doctor said this it is very unusual to see this kind of improvement after only four months of chemo.  He went even further and called my improvement a statistical "outlier", meaning that the results are beyond what the chemo treatments are capable of doing.   God is at work here.

CEA blood level (the tumor marker) should be zero.  Last October, it was nearly 1700!  In December, it was 550.  Today, it is 65, a 96% reduction. Praise God!

Dr. Starodub said from every angle, the CT scans, the CEA blood levels, my normal physical exam, the minimal side-effects, my ability to receive the full-dose of chemotherapy for this entire time, etc., all indicate that I am winning!

So, we continue with chemotherapy for three more doses over the next six weeks, which will be a total of six months.  Then, the maintenance chemotherapy begins.  This looks exactly the same as my current chemotherapy treatment, minus one "really nasty" chemotherapy drug.  So,I will still have to go to chemo every other Wednesday.  I will still come home with the chemo and have the bag of chemo infusing at home for two days. This maintenance chemotherapy will continue as long as I still have signs of cancer present.

So, we are overjoyed with this good news!  Thank you all so much for your prayers!  Victory is ours!  God is so good!  We give Him all the glory, honor and praise.  Chemotherapy can only do so much...the rest is God!