We drove to Iowa City late in the afternoon on Tuesday. The weather forecast was for more snow that night and we didn’t want to try to drive that distance in order to be at the University Hospital at 7:30! We woke Wed to 2 inches of snow on top of a skim of ice. The trip from the hotel to the hospital was interesting. . .

Lois drank the first installment of “glow juice” for the CT Scan at 7:30 and the second at 8:20. By 8:45 we were in the Oncology clinic waiting for her labs to be drawn. Then it was the wait for the CT Scan to be “read” and the lab work to be completed.

When we compared the CT Scan from 8 weeks ago to the new one, there were some slight but seemingly insignificant changes. The lab work indicated the CEA count had moved from 4.8 four weeks ago, to 7.9. However the Drs indicated this happens sometimes during a treatment regimen and they didn’t seem too concerned.

At the last testing and consultation the end of October, it was decided to change the Chemo “cocktail” by subtracting the Oxaliplatin and the bolus of 5FU. Now the Drs. have added the bolus of 5FU back to the “cocktail” for the next four Chemo infusions. That bolos has never resulted in any side effects that we know of and is a relatively quick (3 minute) injection at the end of the three hour drips of Leucovorine and Avastin. Lois continues to have the 5FU pump for 46 hours. Home health care comes to the Infusion unit to “hook” her up and also seems to arrive at our house on time to “unhook” the pump. Or, as we jokingly refer to this, Lois is ported and deported every two weeks!

Thanks for your partnership in prayer.

Have a great celebration of Christ’s birth!