Good afternoon everyone. Fall is here and we are enjoying it as best we can. We have taken the girls to explore pumpkin patches a whopping three times. Have bought Evie two halloween costumes because being a member of Paw Patrol turned out to not be as cool as being Jessie from Toy Story. She makes a pretty darn cute Jessie so we are all excited about it and her biggest cheerleader, Bernie is too. We plan to have Bernie dress up as Baby Shark since she loves the song so much but she still fits her Buzz from Toy Story costume from last year minus a high wader situation so we will just have to see how that all goes tomorrow. We are going through tissues like crazy over here because cold season has sit us hard. Miguel and Bernie don't seem to have it as bad as Evie and I. Evie hasn't been to school all week. Hopefully we are back to normal soon.
In regard to my cancer journey, I hate to say it but we are at a somewhat difficult point again. My CA 19-9 tumor marker is rising again. For those who do not know what a tumor marker is, it is a biomarker found in blood that can be elevated by the presence of one or more types of cancer. To give some perspective, a normal CA 19-9 is <35. When I first started my cancer journey, my CA 19-9 was approximately 29,000, before my surgery it was 22, and this month, it has started trending up. I have been meeting with my local oncologist, Dr. Jafari once a month since surgery in August. I get my labs drawn at Skagit Cancer Care a couple days prior to meeting with Dr. J. I learned when meeting with him a few weeks ago that my CA 19-9 had elevated to 53 and this past Monday, I learned it more than tripled in only three weeks and is now 184. Dr. J said this could mean something is growing and he wants me to get a CT scan at Skagit as soon as possible which means I am getting that done today at 2:30PM. I spoke with my Houston oncologist, the infamous Dr. F and he agrees that this a good plan.
Miguel and I scheduled my next Houston trip a couple months ago. I was supposed to get scanned, labs drawn, and meet with my surgeon, Dr. V and my oncologist, Dr. F. Now it looks like I will get labs and still meet with my oncologist team there, just no photo-op since I am getting scanned at Skagit today. My usual protocol of getting scanned and seeing my oncology team in Houston every 3 months should be back to normal from now on.
Some good news, my insurance approved me for that PARP inhibitor, Olaparib also known as Lynparza. We had long been talking about this because Dr. F would talk about it at pretty much every visit. I will start that after my scan because my oncologists want to have a baseline picture of how my chest, abdomen and pelvis look before I start it.
So for right now, I am sitting here trying to get Evie to nap and listening to the Little Mermaid soundtrack, who doesn't love "under the sea,” right?! Miguel is on his way home from work so he can accompany me to the hospital to get scanned. I am hungry and interested to see how this scan goes. This will be my first scan at Skagit since getting diagnosed with cancer. Hopefully all goes well today and I have good news to share soon of the results which I will likely hear tomorrow morning. I will be raising my cup of CT contrast for each of you while I am in the waiting room today. Thank you so much for the prayers and love.
Here is "Jessie" and "Buzz" testing out their costumes the other day to hopefully brighten your mood on this beautiful Wednesday:
