Why no recent updates?

If you're not interested in cancer treatments, I'll just say that I hope to start updating the page again when I feel up to it.  If you're interested further, read more below the return link.
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Latest update

In May of 2006, I was having trouble with constant constipation with blood in my stool, so I went in for a colonoscopy at the local hospital.  When I awoke, the surgeon said "It looks like you've got Stage IV colon cancer."  A CT scan at the hospital seemed to confirm this.  For further confirmation, I went to the University of Chicago Hospitals, and then to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN, and they all agreed to the letter.

Both UCH and Mayo said I should find a local oncologist as there was no point in traveling any great distance for chemotherapy.  I found a great doctor at Edward Hospital in Naperville IL, who also operated a clinic about ten miles down the road from where I live in Sandwich IL.

The idea of the chemo was to shrink the primary tumor (which had already spread to my liver and lungs) to a manageable size where it could be operated upon.  I went through 28 weeks of chemo, and back to the University of Chicago for a surgical opinion.  Bad news...the oncologic surgeon felt that it was still to close to the lower end of the tract and needed to be shrunk further.

Enter radiation therapy.   Along the line, the chemo seems to have made the liver and lung sites disappear.  The radiation is the most debilitating thing I've ever been through.  It caused burns (similar to sun burn) in my anal region to the point where I can hardly sit.  I had to stop the treatments after 22 of the 25 scheduled.

As of 5/25/2007, I'm done with the radiation.  I had a CT scan on 5/24, but won't know the results for about ten days, as I'm going to be on vacation.  Later in June, I'm supposed to go in for another colonoscopy to see if surgery is now an option.
 

It's now 6/27/2007, and after my last session with the oncologist, he said "We're going to leave you alone for a while."  It was the best news I'd heard since this thing started.  I am going in for a flexible sigmoidoscopy (lower colon scan) and another CT scan in late July so the doc can see what's happening, so the next update will be in early August.

On 7/30, I again met with my oncologist, having had a lower rectal exam and a CT scan the previous week.  Good news/bad news.  No sign or trace of the original colon tumor, however the spots in my lungs have increased ever so slightly in the last three months and bear further watching.  My blood CEA (a cancer marker) has increased from 3.5 to 7.5.  When first diagnosed, it was over 30.  So I'm scheduled for blood tests again in a month, and a CT scan in two months.  Next update after that.

I'm sorry to go into the gory details like this, but so many people have asked, I felt I had to answer the question.