u/butterfly_ashley

Hey guys, just wanted to update everyone. My spouse had his first post-op appointment on Monday with both his surgical oncologist and medical oncologist. Thankfully, his incisions are looking great, and he isn’t having any issues with the healing process. He’ll have one final post-op appointment in a few weeks.

After that, we met with his medical oncologist. Due to the amount of lymph node involvement, even with the total resection, they want to monitor him more closely using the Signatera residual disease test. Honestly, I had never even heard of this before. Reading through the pamphlet they gave us, it’s amazing how much cancer monitoring and treatment have advanced since my dad passed away from cancer 15 years ago.

The plan right now is for him to have the Signatera test every 3 months for surveillance, along with full bloodwork and CT scans every 6 months. So, unless they find something concerning on this first round of Signatera testing and the upcoming CT scan, we won’t have another round of appointments and testing until November, which is exactly what we’re praying for.

All of his bloodwork from Monday has already been posted to his account, except for the new Signatera test, and his Chromogranin A has decreased by over 40% in the last 3 weeks. From everything I’ve read, that seems really promising.

Another encouraging thing is that since surgery, his blood pressure has completely normalized. Before the diagnosis, they believed the high blood pressure was related to the stent placement he had after a tear from an accident, but his oncologist explained that hormone-releasing NETs can also cause elevated blood pressure. He was also severely anemic all winter while we were trying to figure out what was going on, and he needed multiple transfusions. Still, now all of his vitamin and mineral levels are finally back to normal as well.

I’m trying very hard to stay optimistic, but having been down this road before with different cancers, it definitely stays on my mind constantly. Still, we’re taking the good news where we can get it and hoping things continue moving in the right direction.

I know political post arent allowed so I couldnt share the article.

However, after reading the administration is trying to penalize so many people with disabilities for living at home is crazy to me (again politics aside). I have so many people I have met that had no choice to move in with family or live off one spouse income and apply for SSI that could now be cut or eliminated if not everyone in the house qualify for additional government assistance outside SNAP. There is already a shortage of low income and disabled supported housing now you are going to force people to be homeless to keep benefits or wind up in assisted living facilities is crazy to me.