Chemo #2 Round 2

Dad had an extra week off last week to give him one more week of recovery before starting back on the chemo treatment today. Of course he was starting to feel a little better and eat a little more just in time to start the next round! We are certainly praying around here that this time goes a little smoother than last time. Pray that the fluids will help him to keep his blood pressure up and that he tolerates the chemo well, all while it is doing its work. Our goal here is to make those cancer cells sick and kill off as many as we can before determining what the next fighting step will be. He is getting the same meds as last time although I think they backed off just a little on the dosage because it hit him so hard last time. They added two new drugs to the scene today as well. He is now getting XGEVA and Carboplatin. If I am not mistaken, the XGEVA is much like the Zometo he was on before and helps to prevent further damage to the bone when it is evident that primary solid tumors have metastasized to the bone. It helps to prevent any "skeletal event" such as breaks, pain and/or spread. It is new and just recently FDA approved so we will see how that goes. The carboplatin is an antibody (chemotherapy) that, like the others, works to kill cancer cells but is most efficient when the cancer cells are are "sick". I pray that these two new meds are worth it and we see great results! His pain seems to be a little less severe which would indicate that the cancer area is not growing as much and pressing on the jaw bone/tooth area. Also, by looking at the site, you can tell that it is still there, but not growing, so that is good. Please keep Dad and Mom in your prayers as I know you do. This is a marathon battle, but they are hanging in there! Pray that this round of chemo does what it needs to do, but that he can handle it much easier than last time! They did mention the words "round 3" in the appointment...I will keep you posted! Love, Michelle

Update

Dear Friends,

It is Thursday and wow has it been a long week. Dad has gone Tuesday, Wednesday and today to get IV Fluids from the CCI. Good news..today when he went his blood pressure was PERFECT! That will help him feel better just in itself. He is just so weak and having a hard time eating to get any energy! (Thank you for the meals brought to mom and dad because I am sure mom runs out of "ideas" to tempt him with and having things they don't normally have inspires him to "taste" it!) You are all so wonderful. I just wanted to check in and let you know that he is doing a little better and simply "pushing through" this chemo treatment. I believe he is scheduled to get fluids again tomorrow and that should get him through the weekend without any problems.

So today I am praying with a hopeful heart. Hopeful that he will feel better, gain strength and get back to his old self! I know without a shadow of a doubt that I personally cannot fix this situation. Oh how I wish I could! But what I can and must do is give it all to God. When I do, I find that the simple joys of everyday life reveal themselves to me and for this I am so grateful! Won't you join me? Our God is so good and promises to never leave us. He promises that when we run into life's most massive difficulties that we bounce off of them right in to his everlasting arms and TRUST. When we do this, we can find joy even in the middle of major problems! I am soooooo glad for that!

Praying hard for complete healing. Praying for you, your families, the friendships and support you give to my parents..THANK YOU!

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."
2 Corinthians 5:7

He's Going HOME!

Dad is being discharged this evening and is on his way home! After all the crazy test they ran all weekend, it was agreed on by all docs that he was severely dehydrated (and still is a little) and the blood pressure dropping low is most likely a result from that. (Hence, the black out/fall!) He is to go home and then report to the CCI in the morning to see Dr. Becdach and get fluids. I believe it is in the plan to "schedule" fluid treatments while he is on chemo instead of "waiting until we need it"! :)

I will be in touch!
Michelle

Just to Update

Wanted to quickly post to inform those of you who may not have heard... Dad has been admitted to Decatur General Hospital until most likely Monday morning sometime. He had a rough end to the first week of chemo, it really did hit him hard. He was very tired, weak and just not feeling well on Friday. Early Saturday morning (around 2 am) he had gotten up and felt really dizzy. He tried to catch himself as he felt himself falling to the right, but didn't reach the door frame in time. He took a fall and landed on a table/box by the door and cut a pretty big gash in the back of his head! Poor Daddy! Mom called an ambulance to help her and they took him to the ER where he got stitched up. His blood pressure was very low so they ended up keeping him for that along with observation because of the head injury. He is having a tough time with the blood pressure and pain management so he is still there today and most likely will spend the night tonight. They are running different test to try and figure out exactly what the low bp is a result of so they can do something about it. It could be from the chemo, the meds, dehydration...several things. I am glad he is there while he feels this bad so that he can have constant care with fluids, etc. Hopefully tomorrow morning we will get some answers and get him home to rest more comfortably. Thank you for your prayers, I just wanted to let you all know what was going on. I will post when we have a plan as to how long he will be there and what they are going to do about the blood pressure problem.

Love,
Michelle

Chemotherapy Again

My apologies for taking so long to update the blog today. It has been a long day and I am just getting a chance to sit down at my computer. This morning we met with Dr. Becdach again and he confirmed that all three doctors agree that chemotherapy is the way to go at this moment. Apparently, Dr. Spencer told him, based on the photographs and PET scan, she would not be able to do any more radiation at this time. So, as they all said last week, we are going to try to shrink the existing cancer and slow down any new growth with the chemo and then re-evaluate the situation after two rounds. (That will be one week on the pump, two weeks off, then one week on followed by two weeks off in addition to the Monday infusions of Erbitux) Needless to say, nobody around here had an exciting day at all. While we are so glad that the PET scan did not show the cancer to be spreading in to any other organs, we are just saddened for Dad to have to go through all of this....especially the chemo! He is feeling pretty rough trying to manage the extreme pain in his jaw area caused by the bad teeth and the tumor area. Now to add the side effects of chemo is just a bummer. He is tough and will get through it. Please pray now for all of this. The MRI came back and still showed that suspicious "spot" on the neck vertebrae area and also a SMALL spot further down on the back. Again, there is no concrete evidence that this is cancer, just suspicious. Not sure what the verdict will be about going after those. Still many questions to be answered. If Dr. Spencer thinks they are worthy of being treated, it is possible they may do radiation on them just to be sure and this can be done while on chemotherapy. It would be extremely rare for these spots to be caused by the same squamous cell carcinoma causing all the trouble in the left neck, as the cells would have had to travel through the entire lymphatic system through the body and then back up to the neck and spine area to set up camp. It seems that the other major organs wouldn't have been left out of that trip and so far they are clean, so we will pray hard about that and look forward to finding out that it is nothing to worry about.

Dad feels really strongly that the teeth are causing him great pain although the doctors say that it is caused from both the teeth AND the tumor around the jaw bone, etc. He told Dr. Bechdach that he KNOWS without a shadow of a doubt that certain pain is caused by the tooth. He knows his body so Dr. Bechach said if he wanted to have the teeth taken out to go ahead and do so. It does come with some risks and also causes him to have to come off the Zometo, a chemo type drug that helps stop cancer in the bone and the spread of cancer in the bone if that is what those spots turned out to be. Decisions, decisions. We have a call in to Dr. Holmes to give us his opinion and help us to decide what to do there. Again, through prayer, we will know what to do.

Join me as we give it all to God. He will take care of this whole situation. Pray for tolerable side effects from the chemo, clear decisions to be made, the tooth pain, healing...EVERYTHING!

Take care and love on mom and dad!
Thanks from the bottom of my heart,
Michelle

RESULTS of PET

Great news! The cancer has NOT spread anywhere else in the body!!!!! For this we are so thankful and give praise to our Savior! Thank you prayer warriors. What a relief it is to know that after 2 1/2 years it is still contained in the head and neck. I pray every day, expectantly, that ultimately the cancer will be gone from his body and today I am uplifted with even more HOPE! Yippee!!!

So, here is where things are. Some of you may know that last week I have started the ball rolling to go to MD Anderson. I have felt led to do that for some time although it is a lot harder said than done. There is a business to run, a home to take care of and many other details that would have to be dealt with to have treatment there. Last week while waiting for the results of a PET scan and physically watching a spot on his neck increase in intensity I just felt like something else has to be done. We can't just sit her and watch these things happen while we wait on this doctor or that doctor to call and then decide what to do. Things need to be done YESTERDAY! So that very day, I made some calls and then gave it all to GOD. I trust that what needs to be done will fall perfectly in to place whether it is here, Birmingham or MD Anderson.

Dr. Holmes called Dad to check on his teeth/pain. He had the results and they talked about them briefly agreeing that the radical surgery idea is not out of the question, but should probably be put on hold while we use more chemo and/or radiation to get the area back under control. Dr. Bechach talked on the phone with Dr. Holmes this morning while we were there and they conversed with Dr. Spencer through email!! (Now we are talking...all 3 doctors discussing this together to make decisions on what to do next!!!) We have not gotten final word from Dr. Spencer (the UAB radiologist) as to whether or not she wants to go back in with more radiation or if that is even an option. All doctors are in agreement that the chemo worked the last time in that it shrunk the tumors and got the spread under control. We are well aware that chemo will not cure this cancer, but getting it smaller and under control would increase our success chances with more radiation and/or the radical surgery later on. That is the treatment plan that I feel they are all leaning to.

Mom and I just left Dad there to get his regular Erbitux infusion today. If chemo is the decision plan we go with, they would like to start it next Monday along with putting him back on Zometo for that pesty little spot on the vertebra that doesn't go away. One of the doctors isn't worried or concerned about that spot based on its behavior, while another wants to order an MRI to look at it from another point of view. We will go along with the MRI to be on the safe side.

As for the teeth and the pain, we still have no solution for that right now. Surgery to remove the teeth simply is not an option at this point. We've got to attack the cancer first and foremost and both chemo and radiation therapy would make surgery to remove teeth impossible. So for now he will continue to try different pain management regimens to see what works.

Thank you praying friends! Lets offer our Praise to God for answered prayers. Continue to pray for his complete healing..praying BIG! Pray for the doctors to talk and come together with a clear plan that works! I'm still so excited about one day "knocking their socks off" with the good news that the cancer is gone!

While listening to one of the doctors explain to us about how chemo won't cure this cancer, radiation can kill it, surgery is a risky chance...might work, might not, I spoke up and said, "and there is always a miracle". He stopped talking, nodded his head and said, "this is true". Let us never forget the Great Physician! He is always my number one option!!

Love,
Michelle

Short and Sweet!

I will try to make this short and sweet because there are sweet little children waiting for a party and lots of chocolate to be eaten! We met with Dr. Becdach this morning to get the PET scan ordered so some decisions can be made. The PET scan is this WEDNESDAY at 11:30 in Huntsville. PLEASE pray for this scan. We want to know that there is no cancer anywhere else in the body so we can give this stuff in his neck one more punch!!!! The doctor also ordered a bone scan for Friday morning to check that ever so nagging suspicious spot on the vertebra. Hopefully, Dr. Holmes will get the results as we have requested and get in touch with Dad as soon as he sees them and converses with Dr. Spencer. Otherwise, we will get the results from Dr. Becdech early Monday morning next week. There are so many things to consider at this point and talking to all the different doctors with their "different" points of view is about to drive me nuts! (I'm smiling..ha!) Please pray for a CLEAR, DECISIVE plan! Thanks to all!

Happy Valentines Day!

PET SCAN

Wednesday, Feb. 16

11:30