6th down 2 more to go!

Ted had his 6th treatment. They didn't reduce the dose but put him on a regimin of a new anti nausua and steriods. He seems to be doing well and not as sick but seems to be running a little slower. The doctor didn't want to cut back on the chemo yet because it seems to be working in lowering his levels. He wanted to try this protocal first, it was written in a journal, so we will see if it helps. It seems to be so far but we don't know how it will be over the next week.

His last CEA level was cut down to 10.2. He will get the next blood work done for that on his next treatment date of 5/11. We are so happy that this treatment seems to be working. Ted has had less pain but still has some breakthrough. Not much else to report. We are just hanging in. Karen

Good News!

We went in for some fluids and anti nausea and we received the new CEA level....

YES! Cut more then half again. After 2 treatments it went from 58.8 to 23.3. After 4 tretments it went down to 10.2!!!!! We are very excited!!! We should be done with chemo at the end of may! Doesn't mean we are done with treatment but it's a good feeling to know that we are almost there. Ted is resting now and hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter day and feeling much better.

5th Chemo Treatment on Friday April 13th

Ted is doing well with his treatments. We had our 5th Chemo treatment on Friday. The Doctor said he is doing well and they are scheduling him for a CAT scan soon to see if there are any changes and sending out for his CEA levels again. Since we have had so many problems with Dehydration we scheduled him to go in for Fluids on Tuesday whether he needs them or not. Because more then likely he will need them by thursday. Today is his yucky day. Yesterday the day after chemo he did well. We went to my cousins to run some gutter for him. We didn't put it up but he drove and was feeling fairly well. Today he is tired and not so hungry. So I try to feed him as often as possible and get him to drink fluids. His blood counts went down a little but we think its from the stent they replaces and the nephrostomy in his kidney. He lost some blood then so hopefully he will replace that soon. Even though his counts aren't real bad. The size of his blood cells are small. So they might consider giving him some iron if needed. That is another all day process hopefully he won't have to do that.

Still waiting to hear if Kyle got into the ATC. If you don't know what that is. He applied to a program that is half day, for digital design. He had his interview and it went really well but we haven't heard if he got in or not. We are all keeping our fingers crossed. Sam made the track team again but has a bad ankle right now. Possible sprain or stress fracture. So we will have to see if she is going to continue to run or not this year. She is also diving and having a great time with that. Of course the ankle problem doesn't help with diving either because it is the foot that she needs to bounce on. Myself...i'm just getting grayer. At least that can be fixed with a bottle. Well that's all I have for now. Talk to you all soon.
Love, Karen

Happy Easter

We are doing much better today. Ted went in on Thursday and got fluids. Seems this might be the norm because of the cpt 11 causes dehydration. But he is bouncing back nicely. We got a surprise on Saturday morning April 7........



Yup. It's snow.

So much for the sunny days....Today was a little better though. We went to beach for dinner and then a short walk on the beach.



They were giving horse rides on the beach. They are only doing this till the 15th. It gets too busy for them to continue. Pretty neat though. We were thinking that maybe in the fall when they come back it would be a great time to for a horse ride.

Well hope everyone had a great Easter. We should be warming up soon but I guess we are getting rain. Better then snow. Love ya, Karen

Quick Trip to the ER

Well it's Monday evening around 4:00pm and Ted calls me into the bedroom....."Ah, Karen we have a slight problem." Well it seems his nephrostomy sprung a leak. That is the catheter in his kidney. So we make arrangements for Nan to go and pick up Sam from Track with Kyle going and giving her directions. Nan said he did great. We get to the ER and holy cow.....the place is packed!!! Never seen it like this. So Ted puts on a mask, cause of all the little rug rats. After about 20 minutes and we havent' seen a nurse yet, (they call this triage). I decided that i'm going to the angio department to see if I can sneak him in, and skip the ER. Well, there was one person left. She says, that they would have to call the team in, and that would be probably after hours of waiting in the ER and another Hour before the Angio Team came back. If they even came in tonight. Might make us spend the night or send us home. So, I tell her to wait. Let Ted make the call as to what he wants to do. OHH Did I tell you that we Ducked taped the tubing that was leaking. Thank you god for making Duck Tape. So I find Ted in Triage and I get them to let me in and explain it to him. So the triage nurse didn't seem too annoyed but said we would have to sign a sheet saying we signed out against orders. But she agreed it would be a long wait. So we got our appoint for 7 am in the angio department and off we went back home. We went in the morning and they changed the nephrostomy out and his stent that is in his uretor. Everything seem to go smoothly. But if you ask ted it hurt like hell. He has gotton a high tolerance to the knock out medicine. They give him a boat load and he is still awake till the procedure started some. But he has been sleeping peacfully now for awhile. So a crazy day....Angio said next time just call first, they will get him in. Geeze why didn't I think of that. haha....