Saturday, April 9, 2011

Where do i begin....

So i know i said i would be better at updating... obviously i havent. Lots has happened... Back in December we did a fundraiser for Thomas through this amazing organization called Anything for a Friend. We had a GREAT turnout. It was so awesome to see sooo many people there who love us and support us! We had a great committee and we couldnt have done it without them!
On January 13th Thomas finished 8 rounds of chemotherapy.. He was only suppose to recieve 6 rounds because the Doxirubicin chemo is very hard on peoples heart, but they did a echocardiagram on his heart and it looked great, so they made the decision to do 2 more rounds. Thomas handeled the chemo very well, with very few side effects. He never did get nauseated like most people do going through chemo. He got a little tired, and he got a couple of infections. Around the end of January Thomas started having really high fevers! We didnt know what was causing these fevers. We went to the dr, they did an exam and said he looked great. They though maybe it was because he wasnt getting enough water. So we started increasing his fluids, but he was still getting fevers. On January 28th thomas had a chest Ct scan. Dr Gouw wanted to see how the tumors responded to the chemotherapy, He said the tumors improved in size and were shrinking!! He said he talked to the surgeons and they dont feel comfortable yet doing surgery to remove the tumors because some of them are still pretty large! So he said he wanted to wait 6 weeks, do no treatments, and see if the tumors are stable, or if they grow.
On January 31st, thomas had a fever of 104.2!! So, we called his nurse and she told us to come in for Blood cultures to see if he has some type of blood infection. So he got cultures done and we went back home and waited for the results. They called us the next day on February 1st and told us he has an infection in his port! So they admited him to the hospital, he was put on very strong antibiotics, and they told us his port would need to be removed. So the next day his port was removed. It was a very quick procedure. He was just numbed up with Lidocaine and they made a small incision and out came his port! He ended up coming home from the hospital on February 3rd.
So then we go back to have another Chest CT scan on February 25th after the 6 week break of no treatment. Dr. Gouw said that the tumors didnt grow!! We were very shocked that even with NO treatment for 6 weeks they didnt grow any! In fact, the 2 large tumors actually SHRANK in size!!! He has at least 4 tumors in his chest, here are the current sizes of the tumors:
Right Apex Mass- 10mm (Started at 18X16mm)
Left Upper Lobe Mass- 15X14mm (Stareted at 16x15mm)
Right Upper Lobe Mass- 56x48mm (Started at 59x51mm)
Left Lower Lobe Mass- 79x74mm (Started at 99x93mm)
So the tumors are still shrinking, and showing improvement, but are still too large to remove. So Dr. Gouw suggested we have a consult with the Radiation Dr. So we schedueled an appointment with Dr. Hitchcock (the same dr he saw last year for radiation) We met with her and she agreed that radiation would be the next step. They said he would need 15 treamtments of radiation. We go to radiation Mon-Fri for 3 weeks. He started radiation on March 16th.
The first part of march, thomas was having problems with his left arm going numb. It was doing it several times a day. So we told Dr. Gouw about it, he did an exam and since thomas didnt have any movement loss he decided to just keep an eye on it. Well it kept getting worse and never got any better. So after he started radiation, we had an appointment with the radiation Dr. and we decided to let her know about the arm problems. She decided to order a brain MRI just to make sure everything was okay. So on March 18th we went into Huntsman to have the MRI. We get done with the MRI and went home. We were only home for maybe 2 hours when the Dr called.... Thomas answered the phone and i could hear the dr say "Im sorry but your cancer has spread to your brain" It was so hard for me to hear that news, i lost it. I immediately started bawling, i had to call Thomas's mom and my mom to let them know the news. The dr told us to immediately come down to Huntsman to discuss our options. So we head back down to Huntsman. We get there and the dr showed us the MRI scan, there are AT LEAST 5 tumors in his brain, 2 of them are very large. She told us he has alot of swelling around the brain, which was causing his arm problems, so she started him on a steriod to help reduce the swelling. The figure the tumors have been growing a very long time. But he never noticed any symptoms before now, and we think its because, the symptoms will start happening when there is swelling in the brain, and the steroid will get rid of the swelling and the symptoms. And the ENTIRE time he was getting chemo, they were giving him the same steriod because it helps the chemo absorb better. So now that hes not getting chemo, hes not getting the sterioid, and so now the brain was getting swollen again. They told thomas he would also need 15 radiation treatments on the Brain. He started radiation to the brain that day.
On March 26th at 8:30 am, i woke up to Thomas yelling "OW MY ARM, MY ARM, MY ARM" So i jumped out of bed and looked over at him, his arm was crippled up and was twitching, i ran out of the room to grab my dad, we come back in the room and all of a sudden Thomas started shaking all over. He was having a seizure. His entire upper body was shaking and twitching. That lasted for abour 3 mins. Then after that, he was unresponsive for 10-15 mins. His eyes were WIDE open just staring off into space. We shined a flashlight in his eyes, and he didnt even respond to that. Finally after about 15 mins he started coming back. He started blinking, we asked him who i was, but he said he didnt know. A few mins later i asked him again who i was and this time he was able to tell me my name. I called the dr and he told us to take him to the U OF U ER. So i told Thomas we needed to go to the ER. He was so angry, so didnt know what had just happened. I told him he had a seizure and that he needs to go to the dr to be checked. He was so mad and thought i was making it up. I handed him some socks and he wouldnt let me help him put them on. He insisted on doing it himself, except for he couldnt do it. His arms and hands were still really crippled, and he would try to put his socks on but he wasnt even near his feet. He couldnt understand why he wasnt able to put his socks on. He got angry and gave up, he laid back down in bed and said that he was going to sleep. I told him that he needs to let me drive him to the ER or i was going to call the paramedics and they will take him to the ER. He didnt want that, so he finally got up and let me help him put his pants on. We got into the car and about 5 mins later he started asking questions about what happened. He wasnt angry anymore. I told him what happened. He said he doesnt remember any of the seizure, but he remember yelling about his arm, and then he remembers my dad coming in and that was it. They did a Brain CT in the ER to make sure there was no bleeding in the brain, and there wasnt. So they sent him to Huntsman to stay in the ICU for a day, they put him on the anti seizure medicine Keppra. Its been 2 weeks today since his seizure, and he hasnt had another one. And i hope he doesnt have another one. Hes had a few side effects from the Keppra, but nothing too bad.
He finished his chest radiation on April 5th and his Brain radaiation on April 6th. We also saw dr gouw on the 6th. The next step is to wait for 6 weeks and the repeat the Chest CT and the Brain MRI. He may need more chemo to the chest and more radiation to the Brain.
Well thats it for now, i will update again after we find out the results in 6 weeks! Thanks to everyone for the continued prayers! We love you all!

1 comment:

  1. You guys amaze me!!!! Your ability to fight and not give up!!! I wish I could do more for your family but as of right now my prayers are with you!!!!

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