Matt’s Story

Site created on August 29, 2022

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Julie Alford

We haven't updated in awhile because really, there hasn't been much to update. Matt's last chemo treatment was in December, and after a scan in January which showed good stability, he decided to take a break from chemo and treatment. Chemo is incredibly hard and the quality of life is so low, and so with our oncologists approval, we had a nice break from doctors. During that time we also found a clinical trial in Omaha NE that Matt was accepted into.
We went to Virginia and North Carolina over Christmas, and last week for spring break had some wonderful cousin time in Phoenix, AZ (thanks Casey and Liz!)
On Tuesday, Matt had another PET scan. Honestly, we were both filled with dread, not knowing if there had been a lot of cancer growth or not.  Today we went for results, and our doctor was absolutely thrilled by the results. In close to 4 months with no treatment, Matt has one lymph node that is cancerous, and potentially a very tiny spot on his liver. Other than that, he has no measurable disease, and his tumor marker number from his bloodwork (which for a person without cancer is about 30, and for Matt has gone as high as 6000) is at 136, the lowest it's ever been! 
So, what now? We will see if they want to start him in the clinical trial, which is an immunotherapy drug taken orally every day, or if they want to wait a bit. We certainly wouldn't mind a few more treatment free months! 
As always, we know so many of you are sending us your very best thoughts and wishes and we can't say enough how much we appreciate them and you. This is a long road, and the support we have is amazing.

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