Last Chemo!

I've been on a high the last couple of days.  I'm so grateful that my doctor let me change my chemo day so I could be there for my grandson's birth.  The Lord totally blessed me to feel well enough to be with Amy at the hospital for 12 hours.  What a gift!  Mother and baby are doing fine.  It's hard for me to not be able to go home with her and spend a week like I usually do.  I guess we all are having to grow up faster than we want with this cancer in our lives.  Charlene is flying in on Wednesday to be the "big sister/mom" that I won't be well enough to be for Amy.  It makes me cry to see how much my children love each other and are willing to take over when I can't be there.

Yesterday was my last chemo and I found out that my CA-125 has dropped to 21!  It appears to be continually dropping and is in the normal range (0-35).  It was 686 before my surgery so that is a good sign.  This means that the chemo is killing the cancer right now.  Yesterday I had a weird reaction to the benedryl they gave me by IV.  I felt so drugged I could hardly even talk without slurring and I could hardly keep my eyes open.  Later that afternoon I got a very important phone call from a book publisher and I could hardly talk.  I finally had to explain that I had just had chemo and was experiencing what they call "chemo brain."  I will be glad to have my brain get back to nomal soon!

For a quick synopsis, here is a quick review of my past & future cancer treatment:

I started chemotherapy on Nov. 17, 2011. Normal protocol is 6 chemo treatments with 3 weeks in between, totaling18 weeks.  But I was chosen for a clinical trial and was going to go every week for 18 week.  I was able to go for 12 straight weeks before my neuropathy got so bad that I had to stop for 3 weeks.  When I came back I had 6 weeks to go - but because of the neuropathy I had to stop the weekly trial and change drugs.  So these past 6 weeks I've only had to go 2 times (once every 3 weeks).  So technically I am done with my chemo treatments and will need these next 3 weeks to recuperate.

For maintenance I will come back every 3 weeks and they will take my blood and run a CA-125 test on me.  If my numbers stay in the normal range, I will be given the experiemental drug called Avastin every 3 weeks (it should not make me sick like the chemo drugs have), until the cancer comes back.  If the cancer comes back, I will be taken completely off the maintenance and have to start a completely new regimine of chemo. :-(  Our prayers are that I will be able to be in remission for many years without having to start any chemo again!  I will also be having CAT SCANS once every 3 months for the next 2 years and once every 6 months for 5 years.  Thank you all for your continued love and prayers for me during this time.