The steroids definitely helped. Kevin was even able to start back at work last Monday. He is still moving slow, has headaches and is easily fatigued, but his appetite is back. Since the surgery, his hip seems to be bothering him more as is the neuropathy.
He had an appointment with the oncologist last Thursday that was a total bust – drive an hour, wait for 2 hrs since appointments are running late, Dr informs him that he can’t start treatment until 28 days post surgery, make a new appt and drive an hour back home…
Tonight we had an awesome sighting. The ATV, International Space Station and Space Shuttle all passed overhead within minutes of each other. (ATV is an ESA transfer vehicle http://www.esa.int/esaMI/ATV/index.html that is preparing to dock to Station early next month). The ISS is by far the brightest thing in the sky and seeing it proceeded by ATV and followed by the Shuttle was way cool!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
One Step Forward Three Steps Back
This past week has been really bad for Kev. The fatigue and discomfort that started on Saturday continued through the week. Kev did little else than lay in bed – he didn’t eat; he didn’t read; he barely spoke – only enough to tell us that he was “just fine”. To me “just fine” usually looks a little different than what I was observing and on Thursday he finally went to see his Dr, receiving an Rx for steroids – 6 mg/day. The neurosurgeon explained that the surgery had been very invasive (much more so than the previous two brain surgeries) and a slow recovery is to be expected. The steroids are starting to kick in and Kev’s been getting out of bed occasionally, watching TV, reading and eating. I think he is on the mend finally. Thursday he goes in to see his oncologist to discuss the next phase of treatments.
note- entry by deneen (must have inadvertently logged in w/ kev's id)
note- entry by deneen (must have inadvertently logged in w/ kev's id)
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Welcome Home
Kev passed all his exit exams with ease and gained an early release on Friday night. He even had enough energy to stop by our favorite Japanese restaurant for a bowl of udon noodle soup. Unfortunately, on Saturday he experienced a bad headache all day that kept him pretty much in bed. Today he also has been very tired and has slept most of the day, although he claims the headache has greatly diminished.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Surgery Day
6:30
There is no bandage on the incision and it looks amazingly clean. Probably only 3 inches long and they didn’t even shave his eyebrow. He is alert, but pretty drowsy and in very little pain. They are giving him morphine, just to keep him comfortable. He’ll stay in ICU overnight and likely get moved to a regular room tomorrow. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers.
5:30pm
The Dr. came out and explained the surgery to me. First the scans that Kev had last night indicated significant growth since last week and a pretty large new blood clot. He was surprised Kevin had not noticed any symptoms… well... hmm.. actually there was that intense headache followed by nausea attack on Monday afternoon that Kev attributed to a touch of the flu that seems to be going around... Well, never the less, it would have just moved his admit date up and came with a couple doses of steroids. The incision – there were two options. The classic approach for this part of the brain is an ear-to-ear incision at the top of the forehead, then peel that flap back to get at the surgery location. Kev’s neurosurgeon wanted to try a new approach he calls his “stealth” option. It is an incision just above the eyebrow. He decided to go with the “stealth” approach. From there it is similar as before. A section of bone is removed, the tumor and blood products are removed, the area is cleaned, the bone is re-installed with three dog-bone splices and the incision is sewn up. Everything went very well and Kev is moved to ICU.
4:30pm
The nurse came out to say the resection is near complete and “they are drying up the area”. Next comes closure and then the Dr will come out to tell me how it went.
2:00pm
Well we are off to a very late start. There was an emergency early this morning with a 13-year old girl and our neurosurgeon was needed. So we waited in pre-op for 6 hours. Not a problem for Kev since he didn’t get home until 1:00 am last night. (He had an MRI scheduled at 10:00 pm, but things ran late…). And since he had a bed, he slept the entire morning. Not much for companionship, but I was entertained by the two female 60-somethings next to us, who have been best of friends since middle school and were reminiscing about their wild times in the 1960s & 70s. They were laughing so hard, they may have been enjoying a few things other than memories leftover from the 60s…
The waiting room is nice – hot drinks and a wireless network, in addition I brought my knitting project and Doctor Zhivago – it’s not very often I get 3+ hrs to watch it in full.
There is no bandage on the incision and it looks amazingly clean. Probably only 3 inches long and they didn’t even shave his eyebrow. He is alert, but pretty drowsy and in very little pain. They are giving him morphine, just to keep him comfortable. He’ll stay in ICU overnight and likely get moved to a regular room tomorrow. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers.
5:30pm
The Dr. came out and explained the surgery to me. First the scans that Kev had last night indicated significant growth since last week and a pretty large new blood clot. He was surprised Kevin had not noticed any symptoms… well... hmm.. actually there was that intense headache followed by nausea attack on Monday afternoon that Kev attributed to a touch of the flu that seems to be going around... Well, never the less, it would have just moved his admit date up and came with a couple doses of steroids. The incision – there were two options. The classic approach for this part of the brain is an ear-to-ear incision at the top of the forehead, then peel that flap back to get at the surgery location. Kev’s neurosurgeon wanted to try a new approach he calls his “stealth” option. It is an incision just above the eyebrow. He decided to go with the “stealth” approach. From there it is similar as before. A section of bone is removed, the tumor and blood products are removed, the area is cleaned, the bone is re-installed with three dog-bone splices and the incision is sewn up. Everything went very well and Kev is moved to ICU.
4:30pm
The nurse came out to say the resection is near complete and “they are drying up the area”. Next comes closure and then the Dr will come out to tell me how it went.
2:00pm
Well we are off to a very late start. There was an emergency early this morning with a 13-year old girl and our neurosurgeon was needed. So we waited in pre-op for 6 hours. Not a problem for Kev since he didn’t get home until 1:00 am last night. (He had an MRI scheduled at 10:00 pm, but things ran late…). And since he had a bed, he slept the entire morning. Not much for companionship, but I was entertained by the two female 60-somethings next to us, who have been best of friends since middle school and were reminiscing about their wild times in the 1960s & 70s. They were laughing so hard, they may have been enjoying a few things other than memories leftover from the 60s…
The waiting room is nice – hot drinks and a wireless network, in addition I brought my knitting project and Doctor Zhivago – it’s not very often I get 3+ hrs to watch it in full.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Creatures of Habit
Kevin went in for scans again this past week. It’s been two months without any treatment and three months since his last scans so we were kind of prepared for anything.
The appt with the Orthopedic Surgeon went very well. The hip area has healed great – actually much better than anyone could have predicted. Kev’s mobility is still pretty limited though and the surgeon recommended some physical therapy to strengthen the joint. I think his fatigue and neuropathy problems have lead to a fairly sedentary lifestyle and without exercise he has never re-strengthened his hip joint. So hopefully he follows up with that.
The meeting with the Oncologist went equally well. The CT scans indicate most tumors have remained stable, a few actually decreased in size and a couple grew. This is pretty consistent with his last few scans. Maybe there is some residual effect of the treatment (Abraxane/Nexavar) still helping. …None the less, we are off on a new path…The oncologist is recommending a new treatment – Ipilimumab. It works on a new premise – It’s designed to block the activity of cells that decrease the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. In other words, it is hoped that this will help Kev’s own immune system to search out destroy the cancer cells. It is an experimental treatment targeted at specifically Stage IV unresectable Melanoma patients and there is a series of screening tests that must first be passed, but at this point it is expected he should qualify. Of course, the new treatment comes with the usual of side effects…
The Neurosurgeon delivered some unpleasant news. The MRI shows a new wedge-shaped tumor and an accumulation of blood products in the right inferior frontal lobe (forehead area above right eye) of his brain. This is the same area that was “zapped” last year, so either the laser treatment didn’t work as well as we all thought or coincidently a new mass is growing near where the other was. The blood products are consistent with melanoma. It was agreed that the tumor should be removed as quickly as possible and so Kevin is scheduled for surgery on Wed Mar 5. We’re told they have to cut through the skull again, but this time instead of a nice scar hidden on the side of his head, it will go across his forehead – Frankenstein style or maybe a more stylish Harry Potter fashion…
People say you can get accustomed to just about anything. Habits are habits and repetition makes even the most extraordinary events seem ordinary. When you are first thrown into the world of cancer what follows is nothing short of chaos. Everything is strange and unknown and then there is always the looming threat of death around every corner. But you soon realize that you can not survive living like that day-in and day-out, year after year and somehow you adapt. A new nominal is derived and you soon forget about the other side. The scans, appointments, treatments, and surgeries all become commonplace events. Part of it also may be that it is not so unknown anymore. MDAnderson is dedicated to cancer research and treatment. They’ll care for 80,000 people this year. At each appointment we are entirely surrounded people treating or being treated for cancer. We know all Kev’s Drs. and nurses very well. We know about their families and their hobbies, as they know ours. We know the routine – the 5 am arrival for surgeries, the appointments with the anesthesiologist the day before, the special anti-nausea cocktail to counter the effects of the anesthesia, the pre-op procedures, the special waiting room for the more complex surgeries, the post-op procedures, and the likely transfer to the Critical Care Unit for observations “just in case”. It’s all very routine now.
The appt with the Orthopedic Surgeon went very well. The hip area has healed great – actually much better than anyone could have predicted. Kev’s mobility is still pretty limited though and the surgeon recommended some physical therapy to strengthen the joint. I think his fatigue and neuropathy problems have lead to a fairly sedentary lifestyle and without exercise he has never re-strengthened his hip joint. So hopefully he follows up with that.
The meeting with the Oncologist went equally well. The CT scans indicate most tumors have remained stable, a few actually decreased in size and a couple grew. This is pretty consistent with his last few scans. Maybe there is some residual effect of the treatment (Abraxane/Nexavar) still helping. …None the less, we are off on a new path…The oncologist is recommending a new treatment – Ipilimumab. It works on a new premise – It’s designed to block the activity of cells that decrease the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. In other words, it is hoped that this will help Kev’s own immune system to search out destroy the cancer cells. It is an experimental treatment targeted at specifically Stage IV unresectable Melanoma patients and there is a series of screening tests that must first be passed, but at this point it is expected he should qualify. Of course, the new treatment comes with the usual of side effects…
The Neurosurgeon delivered some unpleasant news. The MRI shows a new wedge-shaped tumor and an accumulation of blood products in the right inferior frontal lobe (forehead area above right eye) of his brain. This is the same area that was “zapped” last year, so either the laser treatment didn’t work as well as we all thought or coincidently a new mass is growing near where the other was. The blood products are consistent with melanoma. It was agreed that the tumor should be removed as quickly as possible and so Kevin is scheduled for surgery on Wed Mar 5. We’re told they have to cut through the skull again, but this time instead of a nice scar hidden on the side of his head, it will go across his forehead – Frankenstein style or maybe a more stylish Harry Potter fashion…
People say you can get accustomed to just about anything. Habits are habits and repetition makes even the most extraordinary events seem ordinary. When you are first thrown into the world of cancer what follows is nothing short of chaos. Everything is strange and unknown and then there is always the looming threat of death around every corner. But you soon realize that you can not survive living like that day-in and day-out, year after year and somehow you adapt. A new nominal is derived and you soon forget about the other side. The scans, appointments, treatments, and surgeries all become commonplace events. Part of it also may be that it is not so unknown anymore. MDAnderson is dedicated to cancer research and treatment. They’ll care for 80,000 people this year. At each appointment we are entirely surrounded people treating or being treated for cancer. We know all Kev’s Drs. and nurses very well. We know about their families and their hobbies, as they know ours. We know the routine – the 5 am arrival for surgeries, the appointments with the anesthesiologist the day before, the special anti-nausea cocktail to counter the effects of the anesthesia, the pre-op procedures, the special waiting room for the more complex surgeries, the post-op procedures, and the likely transfer to the Critical Care Unit for observations “just in case”. It’s all very routine now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
