Kathleen's Reflections

I have personally wanted to know when Gus' tumor stopped growing and the healing started. To many this moment would not be important, but to me it was. Half way through the weeks of radiation, Gus and I learned that the radiation could not touch that tumor and stop it. All we could think was why then are we doing this. Gus felt horrible and was so sick. We did not share this information with others because the knowledge was too painful to us.

During the four months of treatment, Gus had his blood drawn for a CA 19-9 test. It is a tumor marker test for pancreatic cancer. The radiology oncologist did his best to discourage us whenever we asked for one to be done. He did not want us to get our hopes up as this is not a very accurate test for some people. Gus had this test done five times. The first time was June 16th and Gus' count was 475. Normal is anything below 37. All through treatment, Gus' counts continued to rise. On October 14th, eleven days after Gus had his last radiation, the fourth CA 19-9 test was done and the count was 604.

The fifth and final CA 19-9 was done on November 4, the day Gus started chemo again. This time it was 254! I went back on the blog today to see what that time frame between October 14th and November 4th held. I want each of you to go back and read what I wrote on November 3rd after Gus had come home from his hunting trip. After he had been on HIS mountaintop.