Dare we even hope?!?

Yesterday was chemo again... We had two actual NORMAL weeks!!! No diarrhea, no major issues of any kind (Joe HAS developed a... umbilical hernia... but they're not concerned with it unless it starts to cause him pain or discomfort). After all we've gone through the first part of the year... ohmygosh!!! To have... 4? 5? weeks with NO diarrhea... and Joe's back to work full time... and can even get overtime if he's up to it!!! OHMYGOSH!!! It's amazing! And he's feeling good... Tired when he gets home, but that's kind of normal for a 56 year old guy, I think... who gets up at 4 AM to go to work...

But the best thing... the thing that's making us rather excited... The PA came in yesterday. She was all upbeat and perky (maybe she DID hear me talking about her being so ugly and cranky at the hospital, and SHE'S taking happy pills now!)... We talked about how Joe's feeling... stuff... Then when she did his exam, and got to the feeling of his liver, which they always do... She poked... and prodded... poked and prodded some more... smiling, smiling... she grabbed up Joe's chart and said, "I have to show this to Dr. Geils" and out the door she went. Then HE came busting in... smiling, smiling... patted me on the shoulder, "Hi, how are you?" then goes right to Joe. "Lay back"... so Joe did. We're like... Oookay... And he's poking and prodding, pushing... thumping... poking... smiling... Smiling at Joe, smiling at me... "Remarkable... How long has he been on this treatment?" Gloria says, "So I was right?" and they're smiling... They look through his chart... count up the treatments... 3, 4, 5, 6... "Just 6 treatments... this is amazing... Remarkable..."

APPARENTLY... Joe's responding WELL to the new treatment... just since 2 weeks ago... his liver has shrank in size AND is softer than before. REMARKABLE! Most especially so, after last visit when the PA made the dire pronoucement that Joe will likely NOT respond to this treatment, since he didn't to the last one (well, he did... after just 2 treatments, or 3, his cancer markers had gone from over 3500 to just 315... then 200 something... finally down to 72 before they quit falling so much... then we were having the infection in the port issue, and he was missing treatments due to the rigors... then the acites... just so many bumps in the road... who knows if they'd have stayed the course?). That he'd likely be on maintenance treatment the rest of his life. After she walked out, Joe was kind of down, but I told him, DON'T discount God. He can work miracles, if he so chooses... He can heal you with or without the chemo. And now this week... the doc was still pushing around on Joe's liver, and I just said, "God is good." He said, "He certainly gives us our tools..."

Kind of holding our breath... they're going to run Joe's CEA again next treatment... that checks the cancer markers... 5 is normal. Joe was at 400 before the treatment before yesterday. It'll be greatly interesting to see what the number is after this treatment yesterday. We trust God to do with Joe whatever His will with all of this... We're just praying that He's truly smiling down on us, after all the valleys we've traveled in this year...

Join us in praying for our miracle. (*"*)