Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Most recent!

His tongue is getting so dry because he isnt able to swallow and its been hanging out of his mouth like this for 5 days!!

This is his upper thigh where they took the top layer of skin off to patch up the hole in his lower leg

This is the skin graft! pretty crazy looking!!!!!! This is where they took his skin to put into his mouth to make the flap that goes over the jaw. The skin there now is what came from the picture above.

The whole leg view, the long cut is where they removed the bone to rebuild his jaw

Thomas sweet aunt and cousin brought us this umbrella that had money taped to the inside of it! What a cute idea!! Thanks Becky and Hilary!!

Thomas First Words

Here is Thomas telling me he loves me! He was able to talk a little after they put the smaller trach in

Here is attempt #1.. Nothing came out!


Here is attempt #2.. Much better!

Monday, January 25, 2010

More Pictures!

THE DAY AFTER SURGERY

WAITING ROOM PICTURES








RIGHT BEFORE THEY TOOK HIM BACK FOR SURGERY

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Tomorrow is THE day!!!

Surgery is tomorrow!!!! I called the hospital today and they told us to arrive at the Huntsman at 6:00 am!! he will be in surgery for 12-14 hours! i have mixed emotions about tomorrow. I'm SOOO glad that he is having the surgery to get this removed but I'm really nervous about the surgery!! I'm hoping for the best! I'm getting sad about leaving my dog for so long, but I'm glad i get to be there with my husband! For anyone that wants to come visit is welcome to!! He would love the visitors!! He had to shave his face, so here are pictures of him after he shaved, he kept the beard for so long because he was trying to cover up the lump on the side of his face!! Poor Tom! Thomas dad came in town from Arizona, so we got to spend the day with him, It was nice to finally meet him! I see alot of his dad in Thomas. He is going to be there for the surgery also, along with alot of my family and Thomas family. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers! We love you all!





Tuesday, January 19, 2010

GREAT NEWS!!

Hi everyone! We had a pretty good day today... Thomas didn't go to work today cause he wasn't feeling well and his mouth and jaw is becoming quite painful, his jaw is really bothering him, he hasn't been able to fully shut it for 3 weeks!! We got some great news today! The first news we got was that Duke is able to come visit Thomas in the hospital!!! I was very happy about that, as you all know, i love my dog ALOT and i haven't been away from him for a whole day ever since we bought him, so I'm going to have duke withdrawals while being at the hospital with Thomas. Thomas was also happy that Duke can come visit cause Thomas will miss him alot! Second great news- the full body scan results came back today and so far the cancer HAS NOT spread anywhere else in the body!! YAY!! That was such a HUGE relief to hear that today, I've been stressing about it alot! So next step is surgery! Surgery is still planned for Friday morning! For anyone that wants to come visit is welcome too, the day of surgery he will be pretty much out of it and its a 14 hour surgery, so if anyone wants to come see Thomas then probably any day but Friday would be a good time to come (unless of course there are complications) the hospital also said kids under 14 are not allowed. But feel from to come visit him, he would love the visitors!! Everyone keep us in your prayers!! Love you all!

Monday, January 18, 2010

More pictures!

We should be getting the results back from the PET CT (full body scan) tomorrow! were hoping it hasn't spread anymore in his body. I will keep you all updated. Oh, and alot of people assume that since this cancer is in his mouth then they think its from chewing tobacco. Thomas hasn't ever chewed before and this type of Sarcoma Cancer is not caused from Tobacco. Just wanted to through that out there :-) Here is a few more pictures that were taken today (01/19/2010)




Friday, January 15, 2010

Hoping for Surgery

Well its time for a new update..
Since i last updated Thomas has had several CT scans done, He had a chest scan done and they found a little nodule in his chest area, they said it was so tiny that it wasnt anything to worry about, They also wanted him to get a CT scan of his legs since they will be using the bone and vessels in his legs, and they also wanted him to get a PET CT (full body) scan. He had the Chest Scan done on Monday, the leg scan wednesday, and the Full body scan today (Friday the 15th) We also met with the Reconstructive Surgeon on thursday, He was a very nice doctor! We dont have any answers from the CT scans yet, other than the chest scan, we should know the results of the scans on Monday or Tuesday. If it has spread into the body then there is a possibility that they will put off surgery, so were hoping that doesnt happen, his tumor groes everyday and it has pushed a tooth about a half out from all his other teeth, he said its very bothersome. We hope to know more soon!


As you can tell, the tumor is bigger since the last picture posted last week, and look at how much further the tooth is pushed out since last week, and the coloring of the tumor and the tooth is completely different!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Donations part 2

We have had some people say that wells fargo cannot find this account, please try giving them thomas full name (Thomas Kammeyer) rather then the fund name, also we are accepting donations into our pay pal account as well. our email address is Tom_jo_kammeyer@hotmail.com

Silent Auction

My moms friend lisa is putting together a silent auction to help raise money for thomas's medical bills.. for more information or if you would like to donate a item please visit her blog at mikeyandlouie.blogspot.com or you can email her at gregersenclocks@hotmail.com

Donations

Hi Friends and Family! Thomas dad set up a donation account at wells fargo for us today. So anyone that would like to make a donation, you can go to any Wells Fargo account and just let them know that you would like to make a donation into a donation fund account. And just give them his name (Thomas Kammeyer) and it could be under Thomas Kammeyer recovery fund. But they can look it up under his name too. Its important that you let them know that its a donation account so they can find it without the account number. The financial burdon is overwhelming so we appreciate any ammount of donations! We love you all!

Monday, January 11, 2010

First Appointment at Huntsman

Today we had our first appointment at the Huntsman Cancer Institute! I was very impressed with all the Doctors and Staff, looks like Thomas is in great hands!
His appointment was at 8:00 am.. We first met with a PA named Nate, he was very nice, he did an exam and then got some medical history, then he sent in Dr. Bentz. Dr Bentz came in and looked at it and wanted to get a Biopsy of his own, so they did a punch biopsy. Then Dr Bentz told us what would happen next.. He said that with the type of tumor that he has, its possible that it could spread to his chest, so he wanted to get a CT of his chest. He told us that Thomas needs to have surgery. He said he would need to have the tumor and all the skin surrounding it removed, he would have to have a Tracheotomy put in while he is still awake the morning of surgery, he will have to have the Fibula bone taken out of his leg, along with the vessels and then they will put the bone into his mouth to replace his jaw bone and he will also have metal plates and screws holding it all together, he will have a incision from his ankle to his knee cap, and then down by the ankle they will have to remove quite a bit of skin so then they will have to use some skin from his upper thigh to graph the skin by the ankle. The dr said it would be about a 14 hour surgery, along with a 7-10 hospital stay. He will have to have the trach in while he is at the hospital and then if he breathing well then he can have it removed for when he goes home. he will also have to do speech therapy. Also, since he is having a bone removed from his leg, he wont be able to walk normal, his foot will drop down slightly causing him to walk a bit differently. He will also have to do physical therapy. Once the surgery is done, he will need to do radiation. The Dr didn't go into much about the radiation yet, so i don't have much info to post about that. He also had some blood drawn today to make sure everything looks okay. We have to go back to Huntsman on Wednesday at 6:30pm for a scan of his legs, and then on Thursday we go back again to meet the anesthesiologist and to meet a doctor that will be helping Dr. Bentz. Dr Bentz goes out of town after thomas's surgery and so the Dr we will be meeting will be taking over once Dr Bentz leave. Thomas surgery is scheduled for Jan 22!! We are grateful that we were able to get into huntsman very quickly and that they are able to do the surgery soon as well!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A few Pictures





**Welcome to Our Blog**

Hi Friends and Family. I decided that i wanted to start a blog for Thomas so that our family and friends can see the road that Thomas has ahead of him. Thomas has been diagnosed with Sarcoma Cancer of a Unknown Origin. Here's his story..

Back in November 2009 Thomas discovered a small lump in his neck, around the lymph node area, we didn't think much of it, we figured that he was starting to get sick and that was the lymph nodes doing there job and trying to fight off the sickness. Then about two weeks after that he got a small lump in his gum area only, below his K9 tooth, it was about that size for a week and then after that week it started getting bigger and bigger everyday, it started growing up and over his teeth, pushing two of his teeth up with it, we didn't know what we should do. On Christmas eve we showed the massive lump to my uncle, who is a Doctor, he referred us to and Oral Surgeon. We scheduled an appointment to see the Oral Surgeon on January 11Th, but around midnight on January 1st we noticed the lump was very big and it was bothersome to Thomas and causing him pain, so i called the Oral Surgeon that we had an upcoming appointment with and he said we could come see him in the morning, so we got some sleep and then went and saw the Oral Surgeon that morning. He looked at it and said it was defiantly a Tumor, he said that he thinks there is a .01% chance that its cancer, he said the next step would be to come in the following Monday (Jan 4Th) and have a biopsy done to see if its cancer or not. So we went into the appointment on Monday, as we were waiting for the Dr, the office lady came into the room and told us that the Dr wasn't on our insurance list and asked us to see another doctor. So after speaking to Thomas mom she gave us a name of a good oral surgeon that she has taken her kids to before, so i called the surgeon and we were able to get an appointment for the next day!! Me, Thomas and Karlene went to the appointment, The New Dr (Dr. Jessen) looked at it and said it was defiantly a tumor and he said it is highly possible for it to be cancerous, he decided to do a biopsy of it right then and then so that we could find out what it is. He took a pretty good size of the top of the lump off, and sent it to his friend in Washington State to have him look at it, also while he was doing the biopsy he could tell that there was some growth in his throat and so the Dr wanted him to get a CT scan, he said he should have the results back on Friday, he said in the meantime we needed to get the CT scan. So the next day, Wednesday the 6Th, we took Thomas to McKay Dee hospital for the scan, it was a very quick and easy test. They did the scan and sent us on our way. We anxiously waited for Friday to come and finally it did. Me, Thomas, My mom and Thomas mom went to the appointment, the appointment was at 10:00 and we waited a while to see the Dr and when the Dr came in he told us that he hasn't received the biopsy results back yet and told us it would be a few more hours, so we went home and waited for the Dr to call us when the results came in, they finally called at 2:30. So we got back in the car and headed back to the Doctors office. The Dr came in and told us that it wasn't good news, my heart sank. He told us that Thomas has Sarcoma cancer of a unknown origin. He said they he cannot determine where in the body the cancer started. He said Thomas case is very rare and hasn't seen anything like it for a long time. He told us we would need to go to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake for further testing and scans to find out where it started in the body. So i called Huntsman and they were able to get us in very quickly! We have an appointment scheduled for Monday the 11Th at 8:00 am! I know that we have a very long road ahead of us, but we has so many people that care about us! We are grateful that we were referred to great doctors and that we can get Thomas on the path to recovery. I will update the blog after every appointment so check back soon!! We love you all!