With all the excitement in our lives the past week I haven't been able to share the good news. Mom shared with me the latest results of her MRI. In April of last year the largest tumor in her liver, which lays along the spine so is inoperable, measured 12.5 cm x 9.1 cm (in real every day terms about 3 to 4 inches in size). This latest MRI, which is not quite a year later, measured the same tumor as 7.3 cm x 4.9 cm. This is a noticable size difference. There are still three or four other tumors in her liver but they are smaller in size.
She has several nodules in her lungs (the next place colon cancer usually spreads to). One nodule has completely disappeared after all of the chemotherapy. The other nodules seem to be stable (neither growing or shrinking) and are likely benign. The really good news in all this is there are no new nodules, which means the cancer isn't spreading.
I know Mom has had a hard time with the chemotherapy. She complains about the numbness in her hands and has had to make several changes in exactly which drugs she is taking. She is getting feeling back in her fingers after completely stopping one particular drug. She still has lots of dry, cracked skin on her fingers which interferes with her sewing (her main hobby), but we are all buoyed by these latest MRI results.
--- Stephanie
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