Hope for the New Year

Well, it seems 2020 had to get one last shot in, as I am ending the year with a bit of mixed messages.

On the down side, I have received word that the blood around my heart did show positive for cancer cells. I don’t have very many details on what that means exactly, other than it may impact the viability of surgery to remove the cancer. With the amazing response to treatment the hope was that I could have surgery take out the rest, but this has now thrown that into question.

I have a tentative appointment with a surgeon at UCLA next week, but awaiting insurance approval on that to get it officially scheduled. They’ll have a multi-disciplinarian team take a look at my case and see what makes the most sense. Until then we keep our hope.

On the positive side, I did my 5th treatment on Wednesday, and the blood markers they test for in my blood were way down again. In fact, those seem to show in the “normal” levels now. Here is the breakdown of 1st (Oct), 2nd (Nov), and 3rd (Dec) tests, followed by normal ranges.

CA 19-9 – 1538, 105, 23 (with normal ranges being 0-47)

CEA – 29.9, 6.7, 1.1 (with normal ranges being 0-3.7)

So I fall back on my mantra from 6 years ago now:

I believe…

I am strong…

I am ready…

And I will win!

The ready portion was added exactly for things like this. I am ready to handle the bumps, the changes to plans, and whatever else I need to be ready for to win this fight. Expectations will often come back to bite us, so instead we must be ready for change. We don’t get to pick our paths all the time, but our reaction to the path we must take is what means the most.

I am going into 2021 with the strength of Hope behind me, and will do all that I can to be ready for the path I must follow.

Thank you TEAMjeff for your amazing support and Happy New Year to all!