Another fork in the road

 Thank you all for the outpouring of love, support, and mostly the prayers. 

We met with Dr. Skinner on Monday to go over the lab results and CT scan. What we have been praying is to see disease regression and for minimal side effects on the oral chemo. The praise is that my tongue has been slowly healing on the new mouthwash and is causing very little issues!

Unfortunately, there is a new area on the scan that has been growing. The way my cancer initially looks on the CT scan can be as normal abdominal tissue. Once it has been there longer, it becomes more apparant that it is cancer tissue instead of normal tissue. This the case for this new area in my omentum (the fat pad that protects your organs). My CA-125 (cancer marker) has been slowly increasing since the summer and did again this time as well. All of this points to the fact that it is time to move on to a new regimen. 

After much prayer, guidance from Dr. Skinner, and consideration, we decided to start IV chemotherapy. We were given options and will be starting Avastin (this prevents the cancer from making its own blood supply) and Taxol (which kills the cancer cells). I have had Taxol before and tolerated it and the Avastin will be a new therapy. I will have 6 rounds of 28 day cycle and will be getting a port-a-cath (permanent IV) placed. Then after the 6 rounds, I will (hopefully) stay on maintanence dosing of Avastin. 

We are still in the process of scheduling everything and are unsure of the timeline at this point. I will do my best to update the blog as much as possible, especially for specific prayer requests. 

Prayer Requests:

1. Praise that my tongue is healing. 

2. Praise that I will be able to get my 2nd COVID vaccine before starting chemo. 

3. Pray for guidance as we try to explain all of this to the kids, especially the visible aspect of me losing my hair. 

4. Pray for the effectiveness of this therapy. Pray for a miracle that this will rid my body of this cancer. Pray for minimal side effects and ability to be a wife, mom, and nurse during this time.