Today we visited our local oncologist. He seemed to really enjoy delivering good news, saying I had an "excellent response" to the treatment. He shook my hand and said I got a Gold Star. He also said my tumor marker, which they follow in the blood tests each week, had started out at 47 and today it is 3! That is back in the normal range!

In the written report of the CT scan results, relative sizes of a couple tumors are given. By my calculations, one of the tumors on the liver was reduced by 78% and a representative area on the pancreas was reduced by 67%. That is after 5 Chemo treatments.

I have now had 6 treatments and tomorrow (7-9-09) will be number 7. I have improved enough that I no longer notice dramatic improvements in how I feel. I just know the treatments are working and I need to work on my stamina so I can get back to work. My appetite has been good for the last couple weeks, so that should help even though I haven't gained any weight back.

Joe