Good and Bad and Hmm.

Amanda had labs an exam and chemo today. The nurse mentioned she had to pull an extra vial of blood for a test they added on last minute. I asked if they were checking the AFP which is a "Marker" that shows up in the bloodstream with this type of cancer. She said they were. (Yay!)In theory if the tumor is shrinking as a result of the chemo then the number will be lower than it was when she was diagnosed. If the number does not go down then they might adjust their plan and use some different chemo drugs.
They also gave us a tentative schedule for the next cycle of chemo. This schedule of course has her doing inpatient chemo the weekend we were supposed to go to the NASCAR race at Michigan in August but we do what we've got to do, right? It also showed doing another CT scan that week and another one in mid-September. The one in September would tell us when we could expect surgery.
Her ANC was down again to 811. This is higher than the "Extreme Danger" zone which put us into quarantine but it is still below 1000 which means we are in the regular-ol' danger zone and need to be cautious about what she comes into contact with.
THEN we found out that her AFP came back astronomically higher than when she was diagnosed. The Dr. thinks this shows a lab error, but which number do we believe? Hmm. So, they will redo this test tomorrow and they rushed to schedule us for a CT scan on Wednesday morning so the Doc can see for herself what changes have been made, if any, to the tumor using the current chemo protocol. We are once again following their lead.
Manda is now sleeping after only a 20 minute nap in the car this afternoon. Hoping we all get a good night sleep.
Mere :O)
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