We went to "chemo training" once again - this time for a new regimen that has shown some success in fighting mestastatic pancreatic cancer. Dad is scheduled to start on Tuesday. It's a 6 week cycle, week 1 and 3 are two drugs delivered via a pump for 24 hours (he goes home with this pump on) - 5FU and Leucovorin (a vitamin complex which increases effectiveness of the chemo and helps reduce chemo side-effects), week 2 and 4 are those two drugs plus Oxaliplatin (which is an antineoplastin related to Cisplatin he received in his first chemo treatments, when the tumor shrank by 1/3).
Info on 5-FU Antineoplastin
Info on Oxaliplatin Antineoplastin
The day after these drugs are administered, Dad has to go back into Joplin to have the pump removed; so that's 2 days a week into Joplin. Week 5 and 6 are no drugs, but once a week he goes in for bloodwork. This 6 week cycle will be repeated up to 6 times (36 weeks of treatment).
We all hope to see good results and that Dad doesn't suffer ill-effects and weathers this as well or better than his other rounds of chemo. He has had a couple episodes of vomiting which we believe are caused by the stenosis (stricture) in his duodenum - it is very likely he will need a stent put in to solve this problem.
Overall, he is feeling okay but very tired. Doctors and nurses all have recommended he get in the habit of grazing all day, rather than eating 3 big meals; it's hard to break lifetime habits.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
We're home in Seneca
Sorry for the delays in updates, have been posting updates to Facebook and calling family, but forgot there are quite a few folks who don't use facebook and aren't seeing the updates.
How the surgery went:
Unfortunately, when they took dad in for surgery and did the initial laproscopy (where they make a couple of incisions and explore to make sure the resection is safe), they discovered some very small spots on the liver; these were biopsied and confirmed as pancreatic cancer. So at that point, they will not put the patient through this severe whipple surgery since the cancer has metastised beyond what they would remove. We are all very disappointed but not giving up hope!
Going forward:
Dad has a couple weeks of recovery from the laproscopy surgery (awfully sore for a few days!), and then it is back to chemo therapy. We met with Dr Hassan yesterday (oncologist at Freeman) who is conferring with his St Louis doctors to decide on the best therapy. I found several active clinical trials in Kansas City, Springfield, and even one back at Barnes Jewish involving a new drug showing promise at preventing spread of pancreatic cancer. Will try to keep this updated more often. We should have some idea of his next therapy options and be starting that plan next week.
How the surgery went:
Unfortunately, when they took dad in for surgery and did the initial laproscopy (where they make a couple of incisions and explore to make sure the resection is safe), they discovered some very small spots on the liver; these were biopsied and confirmed as pancreatic cancer. So at that point, they will not put the patient through this severe whipple surgery since the cancer has metastised beyond what they would remove. We are all very disappointed but not giving up hope!
Going forward:
Dad has a couple weeks of recovery from the laproscopy surgery (awfully sore for a few days!), and then it is back to chemo therapy. We met with Dr Hassan yesterday (oncologist at Freeman) who is conferring with his St Louis doctors to decide on the best therapy. I found several active clinical trials in Kansas City, Springfield, and even one back at Barnes Jewish involving a new drug showing promise at preventing spread of pancreatic cancer. Will try to keep this updated more often. We should have some idea of his next therapy options and be starting that plan next week.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
A Date for Surgery at last
CT Scan / radiation results in St Louis:
We headed to St Louis on 5/31, Dad had a CT scan on 6/1, then an appointment with Dr Parikh (radiation oncologist) and they also scheduled dad for minor surgery the next morning to replace his stint, which they did with a metal stint this time rather than plastic. Then they squeezed him in Dr Linehan's schedule (surgeon) to discuss options. We were first very concerned because Dr Parikh said the tumor did not appear to have shrunk much from the radiation; however, Dr Linehan said it appeared to have moved away from the veins (which was his ultimate goal to make the surgery safer). Dr Linehan wanted to move ahead immediately with the surgery to remove the tumor.
This is fantastic news as it is curative (ie., successful surgery means no more treatments, cancer is gone and dad would just need regular careful monitoring to make sure nothing returns).
*** The BIG surgery is scheduled for June 15. ***
Please everyone say a prayer and send good vibes our way!
It is a major procedure called the whipple, where they remove most of the pancreas, and several other partial organs in the vicinity, and basically re-plumb your digestive track. It is huge - and success is mostly dependent on the skills / experience of the surgeon and his team. Linehan is highly reputed, as are several surgeons at Barnes Jewish, which is why we wanted to be there - surgeons in smaller hospitals and towns just are not exposed to this surgery enough to have the skill to complete it successfully. Barnes Jewish specializes in this surgery; Linehan does several per week and has been doing so for 17 + years. We have very high hopes for success!
A Scare and everything's okay
We did have a little complication the evening we arrived home from St Louis; Dad got sick (fever spiked to 103), we paged the surgeon who'd put in the stint, and their oncall surgeon of course said to take him to the emergency room, which we did. We were ushered into a private room (so dad's not exposed to germs); his fever was down to 99 and he was feeling MUCH better, so they simply ran blood tests, etc. to make sure he doesn't have an infection; fever is not unusual in cancer patients and does not necessarily mean there's an infection. No signs of infection except for elevated white count (which he has had throughout most of the chemo treatments); they gave him very strong antibiotics as a precaution. This took about 7 hours (as expected, on a Friday night, at an emergency room which is now the ONLY one in town, since the tornado took out St Johns). We got home about 1:30 am. Long Day.
Visit from Steve
My brother Steve is now in town for a visit (SURPRISE!) for the next week; mom and dad are both enjoying his visit and we are very very happy he could get away from his busy schedule to take this trip. :-)
Wish he could stay longer though. He leaves on Sunday, and then we head back to St Louis Tuesday. Timing worked out perfectly!
We headed to St Louis on 5/31, Dad had a CT scan on 6/1, then an appointment with Dr Parikh (radiation oncologist) and they also scheduled dad for minor surgery the next morning to replace his stint, which they did with a metal stint this time rather than plastic. Then they squeezed him in Dr Linehan's schedule (surgeon) to discuss options. We were first very concerned because Dr Parikh said the tumor did not appear to have shrunk much from the radiation; however, Dr Linehan said it appeared to have moved away from the veins (which was his ultimate goal to make the surgery safer). Dr Linehan wanted to move ahead immediately with the surgery to remove the tumor.
This is fantastic news as it is curative (ie., successful surgery means no more treatments, cancer is gone and dad would just need regular careful monitoring to make sure nothing returns).
*** The BIG surgery is scheduled for June 15. ***
Please everyone say a prayer and send good vibes our way!
It is a major procedure called the whipple, where they remove most of the pancreas, and several other partial organs in the vicinity, and basically re-plumb your digestive track. It is huge - and success is mostly dependent on the skills / experience of the surgeon and his team. Linehan is highly reputed, as are several surgeons at Barnes Jewish, which is why we wanted to be there - surgeons in smaller hospitals and towns just are not exposed to this surgery enough to have the skill to complete it successfully. Barnes Jewish specializes in this surgery; Linehan does several per week and has been doing so for 17 + years. We have very high hopes for success!
A Scare and everything's okay
We did have a little complication the evening we arrived home from St Louis; Dad got sick (fever spiked to 103), we paged the surgeon who'd put in the stint, and their oncall surgeon of course said to take him to the emergency room, which we did. We were ushered into a private room (so dad's not exposed to germs); his fever was down to 99 and he was feeling MUCH better, so they simply ran blood tests, etc. to make sure he doesn't have an infection; fever is not unusual in cancer patients and does not necessarily mean there's an infection. No signs of infection except for elevated white count (which he has had throughout most of the chemo treatments); they gave him very strong antibiotics as a precaution. This took about 7 hours (as expected, on a Friday night, at an emergency room which is now the ONLY one in town, since the tornado took out St Johns). We got home about 1:30 am. Long Day.
Visit from Steve
My brother Steve is now in town for a visit (SURPRISE!) for the next week; mom and dad are both enjoying his visit and we are very very happy he could get away from his busy schedule to take this trip. :-)
Wish he could stay longer though. He leaves on Sunday, and then we head back to St Louis Tuesday. Timing worked out perfectly!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Pictures of Joplin
On Saturday, we headed into Joplin for Target for some basics (Target is north of the "hit area" but certainly not "unaffected" as everyone in the area is affected; everyone knows someone who was lost). We've spoken to many who narrowly survived, and some who lost homes but are very thankful their family members survived. Also spoken to many of the cleanup crew and volunteers who have seen unimaginable things.
Dad wanted to go to Jim Bob's for lunch (which we had heard had only "minor damage"). From the photo below, you'll know it wasn't open for business! I wouldn't have called that minor damage, but I guess relative to the horrible devastation in the block just south of Jim Bob's, they came out okay.
Dad wanted to go to Jim Bob's for lunch (which we had heard had only "minor damage"). From the photo below, you'll know it wasn't open for business! I wouldn't have called that minor damage, but I guess relative to the horrible devastation in the block just south of Jim Bob's, they came out okay.
 |
| In the Iron Gates area where the tornado first touched down just north of Hwy 44 and Hwy 43 intersection; this is almost exactly 16 miles north of Seneca on Hwy 43; so very close |
 |
| This restaurant appears relatively unscathed, but look at those steel beams of the sign! |
 |
| We think this is the playground of the Chick-Fil-A |
 |
| This might have been the Long John Silver's |
 |
| One of hundreds of vehicles nearly unrecognizable |
 |
| What's left of the Academy store |
 |
| Another mangled car |
 |
| Shopping center on west side of Range Line looks terrific compared to what's just across the street |
 |
| Outside the Radio Shack |
 |
| This photo really hits me hard - a shopping center which is completely unrecognizable - and this monster tornado hit on a Sunday at 5:40 pm - this is the most congested part of all of Joplin on a weekend! |
 |
| Jim Bob's Restaurant on Range Line |
 |
| My favorite store - Goodwill |
Pictures of the flooding in Seneca
Just after the tornado, we had torrential rains which kept us tied down and was horrible for the folks in Joplin. In Seneca, the lower parts of town were evacuated - as directly across this "field" below are homes and the high school, and the "river bed" of little Lost Creek which was way over its banks!
 |
| The field at the bottom of mom and dad's hill became a flowing river |
 |
| Pharmacy and Dollar General in Seneca |
 |
| Old 60 and Sherwood, raging torrent of water rushing at the bottom of the hill |
 |
| Downtown Seneca after the big storm |
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Catching up - next week we're back to St Louis.
Gary and I took a trip using our timeshare while Dad had the first two chemo treatments (every other week) right here in Joplin. After we got home hehad an issue with a fever which they think was a urinary tract infection; treated with antibiotics. He was scheduled for one last chemo this past tuesday, but needless to say with the tragic events in Joplin, he skipped this week. The folks at Freeman are all focused on helping victims and our hearts go out to all the people impacted and those who've lost loved ones.
Dad's next step is a ct scan at Barnes Jewish to check the tumor and determine next step, hopefully surgery to remove for good! We head to STL this week and will hopefully have great news at the end of the week.
Dad's next step is a ct scan at Barnes Jewish to check the tumor and determine next step, hopefully surgery to remove for good! We head to STL this week and will hopefully have great news at the end of the week.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Everyone's home - 2 weeks of rest
Friday morning, Dad got to "ring the bell" at Barnes Jewish in honor of his last treatment of radiation. This is a nice ceremony to celebrate completion of a treatment plan. We got home Friday afternoon - I drove mom and dad, while Gary drove the truck. All happy to be home.
The plan for surgery has been adjusted a bit. Since radiation continues to shrink the tumor for a significant time frame after stopping the treatments, they want to wait 8 weeks before surgery. In the meantime, he is supposed to get chemo every two weeks - we're trying to get these scheduled in Joplin rather than St Louis - a half hour drive vs. a 5 hour drive and two night stay - that's a big difference.
They want a CT Scan done maybe at 4 weeks, and definitely at 8 weeks. For that, we'll have to go to St Louis. Also, it sounds like Steven Strasberg will be the surgeon - glad to hear that since he was very highly recommended as one of the best in the nation (though any of their 3-4 surgeons who do these twice a week would be terrific).
Nice and warm here - 80 today but dangerous weather threatening (tornados, etc.) tonight. Good to stay home and relax.
Thank you all for your kind words and well wishes!
The plan for surgery has been adjusted a bit. Since radiation continues to shrink the tumor for a significant time frame after stopping the treatments, they want to wait 8 weeks before surgery. In the meantime, he is supposed to get chemo every two weeks - we're trying to get these scheduled in Joplin rather than St Louis - a half hour drive vs. a 5 hour drive and two night stay - that's a big difference.
They want a CT Scan done maybe at 4 weeks, and definitely at 8 weeks. For that, we'll have to go to St Louis. Also, it sounds like Steven Strasberg will be the surgeon - glad to hear that since he was very highly recommended as one of the best in the nation (though any of their 3-4 surgeons who do these twice a week would be terrific).
Nice and warm here - 80 today but dangerous weather threatening (tornados, etc.) tonight. Good to stay home and relax.
Thank you all for your kind words and well wishes!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)