Chemo Update - 3/11/24

From Darby:

Treatment 4 update! Treatment days/week are always kind of a roller coaster of emotions. Not that we ever FORGET that we are in a season of fighting stage 4 colon cancer, but keeping busy with everyday life helps us not to DWELL on it. But treatment days are a quick reminder of the battle. The good news- Clayton’s CEA number went down again! Not as much as it has in the past, but it did come down some so we are thankful for that! Dr. Shalaby said that CEA numbers are not a full picture of cancer and it’s presence in your body- basically it’s a gauge but just because the number is dropping or even if it drops to “normal” range, it’s not a full picture of the presence of cancer. So it’s a good sign, but not the ONLY indicator of what’s going on. For now, he is scheduled to do his rescan on the same day as his 5th treatment, which will be Monday April 1st. We are asking to move it to the week before so that is still TBD! This one will be huge…it’s a face to face picture of how his body is actually responding to the chemo. We have good signs it’s responding well, but there is always the fear of “but what if it’s not”. So please be praying for those scans, for good news of how his body is responding, and for all of our hearts to trust in His goodness and presence while we wait and anticipate the outcome. His white blood cell count is also a little low, so there is a chance we will have to lower his chemo by 20% on his next treatment if they go down again at his next lab draw. So please be praying for those white cell counts to stay up so he can handle the full dose! He has handled it all so well up until this point and we’re trusting he can make it through all 6! Thank you all for your prayers, texts, meals and hugs. We are SO thankful for how God has used the people around us to love us SO well. We know He is with us.