Treatment Schedule

At the request of several of our family members and friends, I am going to give you the days/times of Dad's chemo treatments. I know that we are all praying constantly for this entire situation, but knowing the exact days and times gives us an opportunity to pray specifically on that day for that treatment. Pray that they go smoothly and he takes them well. Most of all, pray that they work and we will give God the glory for all of it! As for how he is feeling..He tells me that his headaches have gotten better since Monday and his appetite seems to be better too. The throat pain has gotten a little more tolerable as the radiation treatments are coming to an end on the left side. He mainly struggles with low energy levels and really dry mouth. All of your kind words, cards and phone calls make everything more tolerable. Thank you from all of us! Here are the remaining chemo dates:

2/02/09 10:15 (2 hours)
2/09/09 9:15 (2 hours)
2/16/09 9:30 (2 hours)

Radiation therapy continues daily (Monday through Friday) until the left side is completed and the right side gets fully treated.

Tuesday

Several of you have asked how it went on Monday...so sorry for the delay in posting. He seemed to take the medicine well and did not have any type of reaction to it so that is good. It completely wore him out though. I think the three hour "sit" and then radiation treatment afterwards just did him in. He couldn't stand that he wasn't able to get to work! By the end of the day he was very tired and had a really bad headache. At this point we don't know if that was stress related or medicine related. We will just have to wait it out a little and see. Let's pray specifically that the treatments all go smoothly for him and he tolerates it all well. Thank you for your concern, we love you all!

Sunday

After all of last week's activities, we have all had a good weekend. Dad has felt just as good as he has been feeling, so all is well. I just wanted to remind you all to pray for Dad's chemo treatments starting tomorrow. He will go at 8:00 and it should take about 3 hours the first time. It is rare that someone has a reaction to this particular medicine, but it can happen so lets pray that he takes it well. This is the one we want! We can certainly feel all of your prayers to this point and we appreciate it so much. Callie even saw Papa do a little "dance" Saturday morning when she was over there and she asked, "Mama, have you ever seen somebody with cancer who had to loose most of their teeth and is going through radiation and that chemo stuff dance??" I told her.."No, but Papa can and we owe it all to God!" What a testimony to my precious little girl!

Have a great week and I will let you know how the treatments are going.

One more Awesome bit of news!

Dr. Holmes just called (5:30 Friday) and said he just got the pathology report and yesterday's cancer was SELF CONTAINED in the lymph node and had not tried to escape to the capillaries! Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!!!! It was not as aggressive as he was worried it would be. Yippee!! Same plan...we are good to go and on the right track.

Chemo Meeting

We had a meeting with the chemo doctor today and FINALLY understand it all and how it is going to go. Those of you who know about chemotherapy might have thought I was loony talking about a pill that had minimal side effects, but that is what we were told. It is so hard to meet with several doctors all telling you slightly different things without talking to them all at once. That would be easier!

So, there is a pill type chemo treatment, but the side effects are just as rough as IV treatments and really take a toll on your body. The medicine of choice by Dr. Holmes for Dad is Erbitux. This is actually not chemo, but antibodies injected intravenously that work WITH the radiation. They attach themselves to cancer cells and destroy them. All the doctors agree that since Dad's primary tumor is the only tumor found and some cells did attempt to travel, this is the best route. Erbitux AND radiation. The good news is the radiation he is in now will continue uninterrupted and he will move straight to treatments on the other side. Not exactly a pleasant thought for Dad, but good news from the medical standpoint. Whatever happened, we did not want to interrupt the treatments going on. Our best possible chance of getting all these cells is 1) surgically removing the cancers, 2) radiation therapy to both sites and 3) chemo treatments. So, he is down to start them Monday morning at 8 am. He will go each Monday for 5 weeks and it will take about 2-3 hours. The most excellent news of all is that the side effects are minimal and tolerable. No vomiting , no hair loss, no pain.....just a little rash which we can handle. (He always laughs at me for saying "we"...he likes to remind me that I am not the one doing it..hee hee!) I know he can do it! We just keep on getting the best news we could ask for! Praise God! He is so good to us and I am thankful. I will let everybody know how Monday goes.

Thanks to you all!

He's Out!

The surgery was a little late getting started but once they took him back he was done in 30 minutes! We are waiting for him to "wake up" and then we are headed home. Dr. Holmes said he did fine and the pathology reports that it is a cancer and he is SURE that it came from the original tumor. That is good news. I feel good about it. Dr. Holmes assured me that he feels very confident based on the CT and PET scans that his cancer is contained in the head and neck area. Pathology will review the biopsy further and we will talk with Dr. Holmes again probably Saturday or Sunday. At this point he wants to look at the node and make sure it hasn't eroded into the capillaries. We hope that it has stayed "within itself" much like air in a balloon. Regardless, all of that will just help the doctors decide on the definite plan of action. He has about 8 stitches and should get some good sleep for the rest of today. Praise God again for how he continues to take care of us and bring us through each and every step!

Whew!

What a long day and it is only 12:00! Mom and Dad went for the PET scan early this morning and stayed for what seemed like eternity. They brought the disc back and we all met at Dr. Hardacre's office about two hours ago. He looked at the PET scan and didn't see any evidence of anything suspicious ANYWHERE in the body except for the small area we have been looking at all week. That is good news! That being said, we still do not have any conclusive evidence that the spot is cancer, just that it lights up and is suspicious. Dr. Hardacre then did a thorough investigation inside his nose and used a scope to go down the back of the nasal cavity and down his throat. Often times when a cancer cell is found in the "head and neck" area without a primary tumor, if they look at the tonsils or the back of the throat and around the voice box they can find it. Once again, he didn't see anything in his investigation that looked anything but normal. That is good too! So, our plan is to have the "whatever it is" removed tomorrow at St. Vincents. They should do a frozen biopsy and be able to say whether or not it is cancer tomorrow, or at least by Friday. It is still the opinion of both doctors that this is a cell from the original tumor that has crossed over even though the chances of that happening are extremely rare. If the mass is cancerous, that is what we pray it will be. That is our best deal! Actually, we can pray that it is just an irritation from the radiation. Wouldn't that be awesome? You never know....all things are possible with GOD and it could happen!

We are still down to meet with the chemotherapy doctor of Friday. This is all scheduled as a precaution so that whatever the test results reveal, we will be ready to move. We did find out that he would definitely be a candidate for the chemo pill instead of IV administration. That is good news too! The side effects are much more tolerable!!! In fact, Dr. Hardacre told us that most patients usually experience a mild case of acne and that is it. So, if indeed it is cancer, we will encourage dad to go for the extra protection and take the pill.

Thank you for your prayers. Keep praying. I will be in touch after the surgery tomorrow.