Bum Briefing #8 – By Beth

Eric’s 7th round of chemo started on Monday. We met with Dusty, Eric’s primary oncologist, to review the results of his MRI and CT scans. The news was really good! Eric’s tumor has shrunk by about 70%, so it’s reacting really well to the chemo. The results are in the top 10% of response rates, which puts him in the higher range of the cure rate for stage III colorectal cancer, at 80%. 

It was a pretty strange experience, getting good news on this journey. Don’t get me wrong, we are beyond excited. But, going through this journey you force yourself to be prepared for bad news after scans and tests, but you don’t prepare to receive good news. I think this is called a negativity bias, which most people (except those annoying happy people) have. We really didn’t know how to react. 

We might feel more free to celebrate after IV chemo is done. Eric’s last chemo round starts on June 21st. After that, he gets a bit of a break, then will be going through daily radiation and oral chemotherapy treatments. We will find out more about this phase on July 12th, when we see the radiation oncologist.