The Snow Family

I have some great news I want to share!  Last week marked the beginning of the 4th month of Chemo. Because I had passed the half-way point, a new blood test was taken to see where my cancer markers were.  This is done to make sure that the chemo is doing its job.  The cancer marker test for Ovarian Cancer is the CA-125 test.  A normal range for CA-125 is below 35.  When I was first diagnosed, my score was 668.  After surgery, right before I first round of chemo, my score had dropped to 194.  As of last week, my latest score is a whopping 32! I haven't actually talked to my oncologist yet...I just pulled this score from my lab report online. When I was in the hospital following surgery, an oncologist came to visit with me and told me that the best outcomes happen when the CA-125 test is in the normal range at the half-way point of chemo.  That is what I have been praying and hoping for and I'm so relieved to see that it has happened! I look forward to talking to my oncologis

I'm remembering why I don't keep a blog....I'm horrible at updating it!  I do have some things to catch up on, though. First things first...I just finished my 9th Chemotherapy treatment, which means I only have 9 more to go.  Half-way through! I celebrated by coming home and taking a 2.5 hour nap.  I've never been able to do that right after Chemo because the steroids keep me so hopped up that I can't stop moving my legs to sleep.  Today was my lucky day. The first couple of weeks of Chemo were the hardest.  I was quite nauseous the first week (although several nausea pills kept me from throwing up) and developed mouth sores - two common side effects.  The nausea and mouth sores eased up the next few weeks, but I was extremely tired, shaky, dizzy, and weak.  I would try to accomplish something around the house and would find that I would tire very quickly, which was frustrating for me. As the weeks have gone by, I have found that it has gotten easier and easie