Hello everyone hope you are managing to enjoy some sunshine and avoid the showers. I thought I would post a little bit of an update.
I had a recurrence in October 2013 8 months after my CA125 had started to rise. The cancer had spread to some more of my lymph nodes, there was some activity around the bowel and I also had a small pleural effusion on my right side.
I started carboplatin and gemcitabine with Avastin. I had a scan after 4 cycles because I was feeling really bloated and full. The scan showed a partial response no new growth and some minor shrinkage. I had been feeling really down and tired on the treatment so after 4 cycles and on the recommendation of my oncologist I decided to stop the chemo but carry on with the Avastin.
I did start to feel much better after stopping the chemo and it was a huge relief. The hospital decided that they wanted to scan me every 3 months. By the time the next scan came round my CA125 had started to level off, the bowel symptoms had returned and the day of the scan I wasn't feeling too good. When I saw my consultant the next week I was feeling physically uncomfortable sitting, bloating, backache etc.
The scan results were a bit mixed with some further shrinkage in some of the marker nodules but this time there has been some new nodules on the mesentery of the bowel 'that are suspicious of an early relapse' and also on what remains of my omentum. Normally I would be on watch and wait but because I am getting bowel symptoms my consultant doesn't want to do that.
I managed to negotiate my way onto to a clinical trial specifically for low grade cancer. I have an appointment tomorrow morning to start the screening process........