Thrown For a Loop

We received distressing news at the doctor's visit yesterday; we were told that Dante's alpha feto-protein(AFP) count has increased to 18.8. It had previously dropped to 6.9 (normal is 7.9 or below). We are scheduled to have a CT scan next Friday and they will be reading the scan immediately to help us determine the next course of action. Unfortunately, it will almost certainly involve more chemo and/or exploratory surgery. They took another AFP in the interim, but we won't get that back until next week. We can't even begin to speculate what is happening and why the AFP has jumped so high. There are a couple of possible scenarios, but at this point only ones that involve the words "fluke", "anomaly", and "someone else's by mistake" are one's we want to entertain.

We knew that with this type of cancer, if it were to recur, it would most likely do so within the first 6-9 months. We didn't expect it to recur in 6-9 days. It's too early to say what's going on, but one wonders if this is more of the same, the same thing coming back, or something else entirely. It's that last one that scares us the most.

As you might imagine, this has put a damper on our holiday celebration. At the very least it's put the cautious back in optimism.

Please keep Dante in your thoughts.