Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Round two and great news!

Round two has begun. It started with a appointment with the doctor on Monday morning before the chemo started. He said that everything looks good and we talked with him about 3 or 4 rounds of chemo. He said that we would for sure do the 3 rounds and then do a CT scan and lab draw and see what shows up and go from there. We are really hoping for 3 rounds!. They also drew some lab work on Monday. Every week they draw a CBC (Complete Blood Count) which shows his platelets, hemoglobin, and White blood count, which were all really low last week and have all come back to normal limits this week. They expect this to happen each round- the last week of the cycle all those counts will most likely drop and hopefully come back up before the new cycle starts. At the beginning of each new cycle of chemo they also are going to draw a BCHEM and tumor markers. His BCHEM, which is all electrolytes: potassium, sodium etc, all look really good. On to the tumor markers... (Drum roll please) both labs that they drew went down TREMENDOUSLY! The AFP which was around 600 when he was diagnosed, and then 300 after his surgery is now down to 59.6! His BHCG level was around 9 when he was diagnose, down to 6 after the surgery and is now at <0.1!!! We are super excited about this because hopefully this means that even though the chemo is tough, it is doing its job and killing all those pesky cancer cells!
On to the actual chemo report, Drew has been tolerating the chemo. Again, it makes him very exhausted and nauseated with decreased appetite but we did have his nausea medications changed around for this cycle and seems to be working better than the other medication. We are praying that this weekend will not be as difficult as the previous end of the tough week was for him and with minimal side effects!
Thank you so much for everyone's thoughts and prayers, it is really amazing to feel such love surrounding us.

10 comments:

  1. oh this makes me happy in my heart. :) WAY TO GO DREW!! so thankful for the good news!!

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  2. Tears of joy. Prayers answered. God is so gracious and good.

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  3. Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! Thank Jesus for this awesome news.

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  4. Great news! Thoughts and prayers to you guys!-Megan DeVries (Kapenga)

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  5. That is wonderful news!!! So incredibly happy for you!!!

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  6. I think it is time for a giant YAHOOOOOOOOO ! Thank You, Lord!

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  7. Praise the Lord that is awesome news. It is wonderful to see and hear the progress.

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  8. I can't even find the words to express how happy this news makes me. I am so thankful!

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