I've never had so many blood tests and needles pricking me than I have this year.
Something interesting I have learnt is the doctors often look for tumor markers. This will be one way they will monitor my cancer.
Now, when I first found out about tumor markers, my OB had said that they are not always an indication of cancer. However, I recently learnt that in my case, they were.
Below are mine:
You will see that from March to May 2023 they have changed drastically. Red is never a good color 😂
My local GP said she did a happy dance when saw these results! I also did too. 22/05/2023 was prior to surgery and as you can see markers were high.
Not featured are my CEA marker results for the 20/06/23 and I got a seperate report that in May they had risen to over 500 and as of 20/06/23 they are sitting at 48.8 which is not the normal range (0-3 is normal) but that is still an excellent indication that the cancer has mostly been removed from my body.
Another way they will look for abnormal tumors are by doing CT imaging.
Imaging tests can help your doctor get a look at what’s going on in your body.
The link below has helpful information on what the CT scan is for https://www.healthline.com/health/ct-scan
When I first had imaging done, before removing the cyst, they thought they had see something in my stomach and bowel. So this meant they wanted to investigate further. It turns out, after doing both a gastroscopy and a colonoscopy - I had nothing interesting to biopsy which was a good thing!
It was explained to me that sometimes imaging can show shadows which may or may not be something, they wanted to make sure that there was nothing there and although it might seem arduous to put me through those procedures, I felt at peace that they did it anyway and the findings were positive in this case.
I have added links here explaining those procedures
I had another CT after surgery to look for any new tumor growth and the report showed I was clear! So that is also reason to feel like things are positive.
My next big step is having a full hysterectomy, during that procedure they will look for any new growths. I am hoping they won't find anything!
For today, I am happy that tumor markers are down and there were no new tumor findings! Celebrate every win, no matter how small 🎊👏🏼
Thoughts with you Ruby, you go girl, you got this.