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| Ibby, Tom's sister Kathleen's cat. |
Tom's CEA numbers have been slowly rising. A few months back they were in the normal range <5 but blood tests have show the number to be rising. This could be a sign of the cancer getting active again and a PET scan can help pinpoint an area where this might be happening.
A carcineoembryonic antigen (CEA) test is a blood test that measures the amount of this protein in the blood. It appears mostly in the blood of people with colon and rectal cancer and sometimes pancreas, breast, lung, or ovary cancer. Smoking, an infection, bowel disease, pancreatitis, and liver cirrhosis can also cause the CEA level to rise. It can also be refered to as a tumor marker. Tom's oncologist, Dr. DeGraca, uses it to tract the cancer. After blasting the sacrum tumor with SBRT back in the fall, his levels were low which indicated no active cancer. He felt well and had normal energy.
The PET scan (positron emission tomography will be done next week on March 29th. A PET scan uses radiation to produce 3-D, color images of the inside of the human body. Rather than just showing what the organ looks like, it can show how well it is working. The machine detects radiation that is emitted by a radiotracer which is injected into the body. A computer reconstructs the images. CT and MRI scans can assess the size and shape of organs and tissue but they cannot assess function.
PET scans can reveal the stage of cancer, show whether the cancer has spread, indicate the effectiveness of treatment, and help doctors decide on appropriate treatment.
Tom has had low energy lately. It is sporadic though because last week we hit some tennis balls around on a court. Even though I was got tired, I waited for Tom to finally say he was getting tired before we stopped. The dark cloud of waiting to hear the results of the test is hanging over us, but right this minute Tom is making plans with his old friend, Tom, for an upcoming road trip. He sounds pretty pumped.
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| Looking foward to blue sky, warmer weather, and seeing more of this beautiful country. |
