Fridays Appointment

Ok. The Doctor went over the scan results a little more in depth. That's good because we had copies of them and I had alot of questions. Which he answered before I even got to ask. Like I said before there is no new diease in any of the organs, liver, lungs, spleen. Stuff like that. But there is some growth of the tumor. Which is infront of the sacrum. Not much only about 2centimeters. But the scan do show that the uriters are entrapped in this mass now. Which means at some point ted will probably need another neprhostomy for his other kidney. Probably the worst part of it all is that the Tumor is growing into his tail bone. The doctor said that they will probably start him on a bone hardener so that his bones will harden up and it will help prevent the tumor from growing farther into the bone and bone marrow. One thing he did say is that this tumor isn't immediatly life threatening. If this tumor stopped growing now. He wouldn't die from it. So Ted is now playing Doctor. He doesn't want to stop doing treatment. But he has come up with a plan that he hopes will help and also give him quality of life. The Doctor is all for whatever Ted wants. So next thursday we are having a dose of CPT11 (chemo) along with the Avastin and Erbitux. Then two weeks later he is getting just Avastin and Erbitux and then two weeks later he is getting the Avastin and Erbitux again. Then we test for the CEA levels and see how everything is doing. Hopefully the tumor markers go down or stay the same and we do it again. Ya know he could hit it hard with chemo, Ted would be sick as a dog and possibly no better then before. The tumor is not operable. I think we have said that before. Radiation is out of the question. Even if the doctors wanted to do it again. Caused way too many problems last time. Remember the tons of hospital stays he had in 2006 because of the holes in his intestines. ughh. Ok so that is the what's up with the Medical stuff.

But on a great note. Since ted has stopped treatment since mid December he has progressively been better. He has had some awesome days. He built a porch out back. Took a little longer but it came out perfect and beautiful. He seems to have some of his clearer thinking back and we have the pain mostly undercontrol these days. So it will be a little hard taking the chemo and treatments back. But we will survive one way or another. Love to all. Send mail would love to hear from all who read this. schetkt@cox.net

Quickie...

Well I wanted everyone to know that the swelling has come down some and we actually could see some ankles in there. Today was a sleep day for Ted. I think he really needed it though. He hasn't rested much lately. Working on the house and trying to get things finished up. Leo (brother-in-law, but not so in-law) and Bob are coming down for a work visit. They are going to get some stuff done outside the house. Gutter, siding, demo on a bad deck and I think a few windows too. It will be a good week and will keep Ted busy so I can get some tax stuff together and end of the year business stuff. Well I'll up date more when I have it. Karen

Major Updates - Pet Scan and Cat Scans......

Ok....so the good news is there is no New diease! Yeah.. This is good. That means there is nothing new in the lungs, liver or anything other organ that they checked. But the orginal mass around the sacrum (tail bone) is still there and it has increased in size. This is where alot of his pain comes from. He also gets alot of pain from the nerves that come down out of the spine and must go near the mass that is there. Tha is why he has so much pain in his right leg. So we didn't really get to talk to the doctor too much to get the next plan. We don't know if we are doing chemo again or just the regular treatment. I know that since he hasn't had the avastin or Erbitux he hasn't really had to many sleep days. At least not like before. I keep telling him that he needs too.

But on the other side Ted has some severe edema (fluid) in his legs. I've been giving him some water pills. They haven't really worked very much. So today, Dr. Lee (oncologist) sent us to the ER, where we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon, getting more test and stuff to make sure there is no blood clots or other problems. He also hasn't been breathing real well either. That scares the crap out of me. But all is Clear. No blood clots but they definatly can see the edema on the legs. Ted has probably put on about 20 pounds in like 3 weeks. Ok. So other then that it is good. Hopefully he will get some good sleep and feel better soon.