As you might have guessed...

The test results are not exactly what we hoped for, which is why I haven't updated the blog until today. The scan results showed some growth on his existing tumors, about a 10% increase. In the grand scheme of things this wouldn't be characterised as significant growth, but at the same time, ANY growth is a setback when you're dealing with cancer.

We had a good meeting with Dr. Haid today, and after looking at the results, his suggestion is to stay the course, at least for a bit longer. He's seen some success in patients who have some minor growth at the outset because the tumors become inflamed, and then the tumors can shrink dramatically - anywhere between 25 - 50%. Needless to say we're hoping that Dr. Haid has this scenario pegged, but there are no guarantees with cancer, and even Dr. Haid cannot predict the outcome of how one chemo drug will perform on any given person. So, that being said, Dr. Haid is very heartened by the fact that Jim's CEA level is still on the decline - a sign that although the existing tumors haven't shrunk, something positive is going on in Jim's body.

One positive aspect of this last scan is that there is no NEW growth reported - meaning we're fighting the same tumors he was fighting before - not a host of new tumors in addition to the growth on the existing ones.

Right now, we are choosing to focus on the fact that Jim's CEA level is down by more than half, and the fact that there are no new tumors. Jim had a treatment today of his regular chemo combination. Next week we'll be in NYC at Sloan Kettering, meeting with Dr. Kemeny. Dr. Haid has prepared all of his notes and recommended courses of treatment so that we can have Dr. Kemeny review them. We seem to be at a bit of a crossroads with the course of action - we need a second opinion, and based on what Dr. Kemeny says, possibly a third. We believe that Dr. Haid is extremely competent, but we also want to make sure that we have all our bases covered, and that means conferring with Dr. Kemeny.

We are very disappointed. We honestly never imagined that we wouldn't get great news. Even though we were prepared to deal with some disappointment, I don't think (based on the CEA level) that we imagined that anything was growing. But now is the time to pick ourselves up, realize that we should not have any less hope today than we did yesterday, last week or last month, and keep going. My Uncle Mike pointed out that this is round one in a 15 round fight. A single CT scan does not account for the whole of Jim's treatment.

Dr. Haid also graciously offered to meet with Jim after work on Thursday night to work with him on some alternative healing. We're not sure what that entails, but based on Dr. Haid's experience, I imagine it'll be pretty neat. For those of you who haven't heard, in October Dr. Haid introduced Jim to the concept of "Chi" by giving us a demonstration of how his chi works.

Chi or Qi: the circulating life energy that in Chinese philosophy is thought to be inherent in all things; in traditional Chinese medicine the balance of negative and positive forms in the body is believed to be essential for good health

By giving us a demonstration of Jim's chi, Dr. Haid got Jim to sign up for tai chi and I think he seriously changed the way Jim's perceives Eastern medicine. (If you want to know more about the demonstration, you'll have to ask Jim. At the risk of being labeled flighty, I beg out of explaining the details - if you hear it from Jim, it's amazing - if you hear it from me, you'll think I'm a quack!)

We have faith that Jim will slay the beast. It's only a matter of time.

On a lighter note, I'll be posting pictures of Jim's trip to Mexico. He and my Dad managed to make 10 dives throughout the week, and they both got an Advanced Open Water Diver certification while they were there, which enables them to dive to 130'. Based on some of the pictures, it seems that I'd better get a certification fast - their dive instructor Babette was pretty hot. I'm not jealous, mind you...