Feb. Update

Well I am back home this weekend after being in Houston all last week. My parents and I left on Tuesday to go south and beat the winter storm. On Thursday I had all my tests, CT's, MRI, blood work etc. On Friday morning they did a Fine Needle Aspiration (better know as a biopsy) of the tumor under my arm. It wasn't the best trip in the world for several reasons but at least it is over for now.

One of the frustrating things that happened this trip was my doctor's appointment got scheduled for Thursday morning at 9:30, before I had my CT scan or my MRI done. It is kind of difficult for the doctor to make a diagnosis, or give a progress report on how I am doing without seeing any scans. After several phones calls to the nurse, it was decided by the doctor that I would still see him Thursday morning. It was a waste of time. (I did ask what happened and was told whoever scheduled the two day's made a mistake.) Later that day I went to another clinic there at MD Anderson to have my pick line cleaned and the bandage changed. (The pick line is the tube in my left arm that is used to inject the chemo. into me.) It has six stitches holding to my bicep. One of the stitches had pulled out so the nurse had to redo it. So she decided to redo all three on that side. She forgot to deaden the bottom one before she started stitching it. It wasn't that it hurt that bad, it was just another one of those frustrating things. And the biopsy, all I will say is they took a needle that looks like a drinking straw and stuck it in my three different times. Now I have three holes in my side. The biopsy is will be tested to see if my cancer has the mutation I spoke about a few blogs ago. It should take three to four weeks to get the results back.

With the doctor's appointment mistake, they told me they would call me on Friday morning and let me know the results. It's a little too confusing and time consuming to go into too much depth about all the dynamics, but when we met with the doctor and physician's assistant on Thursday we were left with the impression that they wouldn't do surgery. As I told my parent's and wife I was confused because surgery had been discussed at our last appointment. The physician's assistant called Friday morning and gave us the results. The tumor under my arm is shrinking and some of the cancer in it is dying. The ones in my lungs and abdomen area are not showing much shrinkage. Some are shrinking, it is just not significant. The good news is there is no new growths and it hasn't spread anywhere new. And the ones that are there aren't growing. So again, not bad news, just not the news we were hoping for. My cancer is being stubborn. One of the things I did ask the doctor was how much more chemo. can my body take? For whatever reason I am handling the chemo. very well. Most people only get six rounds before the side effects become too much. (To look at me, you would never know I was sick.) He said I should be able to handle at least two more rounds which would put me at eight rounds. So at the end of the phone call, the physician's assistant said the doctor was recommending two more rounds of chemo. About thirty minutes later I got another phone call from the physician's assistant. She told me that the doctor, after spending more time looking at my scans and after more discussion, had changed his mind and was now recommending surgery to remove the tumor under my arm. So the decision was made, the next step will be surgery in Houston. We don't know when it will be. They are supposed to schedule it and call me this week to let me know. We are hoping that it will be before the end of the month. Once I am completely healed after the surgery I will resume some sort of chemo. I have to be totally healed before I can do more chemo. so we don't have a set time frame.

Believe it or not, that is the short version. It was a stressful few days for us, but we continue on. Hopefully the biopsy results will show the mutation and I will be able to switch to a different type of chemo. and see if it will be more effective in killing my cancer. As soon as we have a schedule for the surgery I will update everyone.

Remember every day to put one foot in front of the other, drink a lot of water, and don't forget to breath.................................