Journal entry by Marsha Doerksen —
And the beat goes on...
Thought I would jump on here and give a little update of how things are going out here in South Dakota. I just finished the second 6 rounds of chemo. So glad to be finished, but it wasn't too bad. The worst part was the fatigue.
On Monday I had labs and a CT with a followup doctor's appointment on Tuesday. The cancer marker went up again and the CT showed the small tumor in my abdomen had increased from 1 cm to 1.4 cm. We will give it some time now that treatment has ended to see if it's fast growing and only changed a little because of the chemo. While we wait my oncologist will send my results and tissue to see if I qualify for a clinical trial. He has 6 that I might qualify for now that I have failed earlier treatment and am considered platinum resistant. He also said I could see if Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic had any additional trials available and he would make a call to his colleagues there if I want him too, so we are trying to decide. Of course, it would be easier if we could get in a trial here and stay home. So we'll see. He said it could take 1 to 3 weeks to hear back from all of them. In the meantime, I'm happy to get a break. Hopefully I can regain some strength. The warm weather will help for sure!
So that's where we are right now. Can you pray that I get accepted to a clinical trial that will be beneficial without too many side effects and pray that we make good decisions? In the meantime we'll soak up the sun, dance and laugh, and continue to focus on nutrition and exercise. Thanks for having my back! Couldn't do all of this without you!! ❤️
Thought I would jump on here and give a little update of how things are going out here in South Dakota. I just finished the second 6 rounds of chemo. So glad to be finished, but it wasn't too bad. The worst part was the fatigue.
On Monday I had labs and a CT with a followup doctor's appointment on Tuesday. The cancer marker went up again and the CT showed the small tumor in my abdomen had increased from 1 cm to 1.4 cm. We will give it some time now that treatment has ended to see if it's fast growing and only changed a little because of the chemo. While we wait my oncologist will send my results and tissue to see if I qualify for a clinical trial. He has 6 that I might qualify for now that I have failed earlier treatment and am considered platinum resistant. He also said I could see if Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic had any additional trials available and he would make a call to his colleagues there if I want him too, so we are trying to decide. Of course, it would be easier if we could get in a trial here and stay home. So we'll see. He said it could take 1 to 3 weeks to hear back from all of them. In the meantime, I'm happy to get a break. Hopefully I can regain some strength. The warm weather will help for sure!
So that's where we are right now. Can you pray that I get accepted to a clinical trial that will be beneficial without too many side effects and pray that we make good decisions? In the meantime we'll soak up the sun, dance and laugh, and continue to focus on nutrition and exercise. Thanks for having my back! Couldn't do all of this without you!! ❤️
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