Latest CEA and CT scan results

I learned yesterday that one of our MacDiarmid Institute Principal Investigators has not heard from his wife since she visited the Christchurch CBD on Tuesday. It is likely that she is amongst the casualties. In the context of the tragedy in Christchurch, my solitary health problems pale into insignificance.

Still, I will keep faith with the intent of the blog, to keep friends and family updated on my health progress. This week I had a staging X-ray CT and another (three-weekly) blood test. The CT found no evidence of metastasis, though any relief needs to be tempered with the knowledge that contrast CT is fairly insensitive, and will only see tumours once they are at cm scale. The CEA showed another increase, from 4.5 to 4.9, a slight rate-of-rise increase as can be seen in the graph update. Still, there is no reason to alter my current thinking that while the disease may be recurring, there is still the possibility of post-operative chemotherapy effects.