Hey, all -- wanted to post an update. I stopped maintenance treatment the end of February this year. It started to become unbearable for me. I was smelling things at the clinic (I want to say saline solution but it could have been something else they were flushing the port with) that made me violently ill to the point where I started wearing a mask with a cotton ball under my nose that had some kind of essential oil on it so I wouldn't smell whatever it was that was causing me to vomit. I started getting anxiety two or three days before the treatment day, and I just got to the point where I said enough is enough with the infusions and the 46 hour ball. So, since the cancer remained stable, I told my oncologist that I wanted to just get a repeat CT scan in June and see where things were then. Lo and behold, the rectal tumor was too small to be seen on CT, the liver spots were unchanged, but the lung spots had increased in number and size. So, we decided to start Avastin infusion with Xeloda for four 3 week cycles which I started on July 8th. I haven't yet had side effects that I'm aware of but did have some fairly significant pain and redness on the soles of my feet after 3 days of Xeloda. I also sprayed an herbicide on my lawn around that same time wearing sandals, so it may have gotten on my feet and caused the pain and redness. Anyway, I bought Udderly Smooth cream with 20% urea as well as Voltaren ointment in anticipation of hand foot syndrome. I have put on either the cream or the ointment under socks twice a day since Saturday, and now it's Tuesday and my feet are so much better I can actually walk without pain now.

I will continue the Mvasi/Xeloda for a total of 4 cycles and get a repeat CT scan to see if there are any changes in the lung spots. After that we'll see where things are, but I anticipate taking a four week break from Xeloda and restart it if needed.

Hope everyone is doing alright. Would love to hear how things are going for all of you.