Hi there,
Just a quick update ... my husband went for his second PET/CT Scan yesterday. It's been 4 months since his colon resection and stage IV colon cancer diagnosis (at which time the doctors said they gave him 3-6 months to live). He just got the results of his second PET/CT Scan yesterday. He remains NED and his CEA rate remains an enviable zero point 6. And he's been gaining weight and getting healthier since addressing an painful slipped disk issue. This slipped disk issue is wholly unrelated to the cancer and believe me, it's been a fight to get this slipped disk issue addressed, as the other specialists seem fixated on the stage IV colon cancer diagnosis and maybe wrote my husband off? But hey, we're showing them! Clearly our oncologist is cautiously optimistic.
In short, this does not mean my husband out of the woods (as any sage oncologist or even cancer survivor can tell you, myself included being a kidney cancer survivor and a widow of a man who passed away from prostate cancer several years ago). But this is excellent "early stage diagnosis" news and shows that life does go on and one should never give up hope, even when given such a dire initial prognosis from dumb doctor's that rely strictly on stats (and outdated stats at that too) .
Paula Jean
PS: Sorry about my earlier scrambled post about WOCN qualifications. I'm tending to my husband's and grand-daughter's needs and oftentimes, one gets side tracked when responding to their needs on-the-fly and responding to various posts simultaneously. As a professional editor/ writer , well such scrambled logic is very embarrassing (BIG SMILE).