A couple of days ago on Wednesday Joan had a CTscan at a government public hospital. The dye infusion didn't go well and much of it spilled out on Joan instead of being infused. The scan was done and a Doctor looked at the scan and deemed it to be OK. Today the scan and the analysis had not reached the Oncologists's rooms. Our man rang Royal Perth Hospital and asked a physician to dig out the scans and compare them with the previous scan from three months ago to see what is happening. About an hour later he received a verbal report which suggested no changes. He told us that that is a good sign...'We call that a stable disease'. The results of a blood test showed that the blood tumour marker had risen up to 2,000. Still not alarming, but disappointing.
He then illustrated graphically what could be going on with the CT scans. The first sketch would indicate that the scans at a 3 month interval shows a stable situation. The second illustration could possibly show that in between the two scans the results were much lower and had climbed back up to be on a level with the previous CT Scan. Not too comforting!
He has put Joan back on Xeloda at a slightly smaller dose. We shall see what side effects she can tolerate at the lesser dose.
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