Prayers for Marge

If you know my family well, or have been reading this blog for some time, you know that my mother-in-law, Marge, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in May 2007 and then it matastasized to her liver in January 2008.

Since then, she has been receiving chemotherapy every two weeks, except for a short break of a few months. Every week, on the day before she gets her chemo, she has blood drawn so that they can check the "cancer markers" in her blood. Thankfully these numbers have remained fairly low (which is good and means that the cancer cells are not growing), but towards the end of February, the numbers started going up (which is not good!). Her doctor said that this means that the cancer cells are beginning to increase and it may mean that the cancer is moving to another part of her body. She had a PET scan in late January and it didn't show any abnormalities so the doctor cannot be exactly sure at this time. Due to insurance regulations, she can only have a scan every three months, so she won't have another one until late April. At that time, hopefully we will know more.

Right now, the doctor has introduced a chemo medicine called Camptosar in addition to the Avastin that she already receiving. The Camptosar is a stronger medicine and has some pretty awful side effects. The worst one that she is experiencing right now is the loss of her hair. She said that it has been falling out for a week or so now and she has an appointment at the Oncology clinic to get her head shaved tomorrow. They are providing her with a wig, which is nice. She is also having some bleeding in her nose (another side effect), but other than that, she seems to be doing pretty well.

Of course she is scared and the uncertainty of it all can be very unnerving. Keith and I would appreciate any and all prayers that can be said for Marge. We are going up to visit her in a few weeks for Easter. I know that she looks forward to seeing Jake (and us, lol) so it should be a good visit. Thank you, in advance, for your prayers. They mean a lot to our family.