?? New Worries

Kris….ditto what Marion and Gavin said. I’ve got numbers that are going up and down and up again……a couple of concern enough that the onc says we’ll “watch” them, but they’re probably caused by something else. I was amazed when the local onc told me that the issues with spine could be causing the alk phos to be elevated and that it also could be holding down my hemoglobin. Everything is so interconnected in how our bodies work.

If it has been 3 months since the last scan, I don’t see why not to do one, just to ease your mind. I think you are doing the right thing to bring the liver numbers to the oncs attention and if you really feel strongly that you need to know that there’s nothing growing (at least that can be seen), then push for a scan. Mental health and physical health go hand in hand and that goes for you as well as Mark. It may be that the right thing would be to wait one month…have a new set of blood labs drawn to see if there are any changes up or down. If they are trending up….then another scan sooner certainly makes more sense. Other things…such as unknown viruses can cause the liver enzymes to raise. Sometimes you don’t even know you’ve been sick. That happened to my husband. I was sick…..very mildly….barely noticed…but husband started having night sweats and his liver enzymes were WAY high through the roof. He went through every testing in the book….and the end result was an infectious disease doctor telling him that since everything else was ruled out, he had hepatitis of an unknown type and that the numbers would go back down…which they did.

As for the A1C being up to 9. If Mark hasn’t been doing well in watching his Blood sugar numbers and taking insulin when he should, that is probably the reason for the high A1C and not a new cancer growing. In the year before my diagnosis, I had another illness that was causing my A1C to go up….and I just gave up for a while. Suddenly, my blood sugars normalized….and my A1C was 7.1……but it was because.the tumor I didn’t know I had was keeping my liver from apparently kicking out more sugar. I actually had a sugar low of 43 and later I discovered that a spontaeous (not caused by too much insulin injection) low sugar like that is a sign of a cancer in the liver. By the night before sugery, my A1C had dropped to 6.9. I could eat just about anything and not need insulin at that point. So, I guess what I’m saying is that i wouldn’t make too much of the high A1C. It just sounds like maybe Mark got tired of all the medical stuff and gave himself a break from medical stuff and diabetes (not that it makes it go away), and I have to admit to doing the same thing a couple times over the years….like right now for one instance.

I wish I could be there …right there where you are….to take you shopping or something to get your mind off it it. But, I know you won’t stop thinking about it. I’m sorry to hear that the steroids didn’t work for your back. I was hoping that they might calm down the inflammation and give you some relief. There are several things they can do besides the epidural cortisone. I found out that a friend had a nerve block shot…which has given her a lot of relief. She still has to be careful of hurting her back, but no pain. There are other things yet to try

For now…hugs from me….Julie T.

Kris……please try to not think the worst. As you know too well the elevated enzymes could be temporarily elevated. We have seen it many times unrelated to the cancer, but understandably the worry is always the same. I am staying optimistic and focus my thoughts on your healing from the back injury. You so much need a break from it all.
Hugs,
Marion