Micro-spheres

Well we just returned from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago where they inserted the Y-90 Micro-spheres into the tumors still in my liver.

I want to thank Bill (see Bills Blog) for telling us about SIRT. More importantly I would like to thank Northwestern Memorial Hospital and their staff for taking my case on. When everyone else said it would not help they stepped up to help me and to give us a ray of hope.

If we can all work together and share information and knowledge with one and other, we might start to win this fight.

The process is two fold. I visited the hospital 3 weeks ago for testing to make sure that I was a candidate.  This was a 6 hour process and left some pain in my right leg and lower back.

The final piece of this was the actual insertion of the micro-sphere beads. I ended up having to lay flat on a bed for 6 hours to seal off my artery in my right leg. I was told that the pain over the next 2 weeks go from very little to pretty bad to less than I had before the process started.

I’ve been running a fever the past 2 evens but so far we are able to keep that under check. The nausea is has not been good, but the Compazine has been working for that.

I will get started again on Monday with my herbal tea and acupuncture. This has helped my platelet counts to 30+ now. It has not been that high for months.

Until next time:
YOU KEEPING FIGHTING CANCER and ENJOY THE DAY!

East & West Working Together?

Wouldn’t it be great if Western medicine would wake up and start taking advantage of Eastern medicine? That’s what we are trying to do now and with the fact that I have very limited Western options left.

The Eastern medicine (herbs and acupuncture) have given me  alot. I feel better and have much more energy than I had before. Now the herb tea I’m drinking… that is some nasty stuff to say the very least, but it is much better than chemo.

We are moving forward with Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago with the Radioembolization (RE) using (90) Y-microspheres. This could help stop or slow the tumors growth.

I should know Monday what my schedule will be at NMH. I know that we will have to travel up there for one more test before I’m given the green light to go ahead.  From there I return home until they put together a detailed plan for me.

Once that is completed we will travel back to Chicago for the insertion of the 90-Y microspheres. That is really all I know about the process at this time. I don’t know how long the recovery will be or how long before they will let me travel back home.

Last bit of news from last week was my blood work report! No better, but no worse either, so I’m standing my ground. Platelets are still 17!

Till next time You KEEP Fighting Cancer and ENJOY THE DAY!

Acupuncture

It's been a couple weeks since I last updated this blog, but we have been busy searching the web for more information and options for my cancer type. And since I'm a good 10 weeks withOUT chemotherapy I feel really very good.

In the mean time I found myself heading off to an acupuncture doctor to see if they could help manage my pain a little better than the pain pills that I'm now addicted to.

I can say that after just one week the acupuncture has helped my pain by a good 80% if not more. I've only had one or two events that my pain levels were bad enough to take a fast acting pain pill (oxycodone). This is amazing to me since I was taking oxycodone and oxycontin both everyday.

If you are having pain of any kind for any reason I would strongly suggest that do the research to find a great acupuncture specialist in your area and make an appointment. I wish I would have done this at least a year ago if not more. They have also shown me a very simple exercise to help get more oxygen into my system. 

The combination of massage and acupuncture have given me a way to relax, maintain pain and stress and now a way to increase my oxygen levels. I'm looking forward to learning what else is possible in the Eastern medicine realm.

Again the key here is to find the right specialist that has dealt with cancer patient's in the past and knows their craft. 

As for "traditional" medicine I have a CT scan coming up in a couple of weeks as well as lab work to see where my blood levels are. No treatments at this time. 

We are talking with Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago  about a Radioembolization (RE) using (90)Y-microspheres. This could help stop or slow the tumors growth.

Until next time- You Keep Fighting Cancer and ENJOY THE DAY!

MD Anderson Trip

We just returned from a 2 week stay in Houston, running many tests and talking to a lot of MD Anderson doctors. The results from all of the above were shocking and disheartening to say the least

.

It seems that the low blood counts that I have been fighting for the past few months are due to “portal hypertension” in my liver. With all the scaring from surgery’s and the 3 years of chemo my liver is failing to do its job of getting platelets to the rest of my body.

With low platelet counts I can not get chemo treatments to fight the cancer. The fear is that I will bleed to death internal and never know its happening if I do chemo. So the tumors will grow and over come the liver at some point.

We talked about liver transplants and it was explained to me why that would not be an option for me. We talked about removing my ever enlarging spleen, but right now it is a safety value for the pressure that has built up in my liver.

The bottom line and one that is very hard to except is that there is nothing else left in traditional medicine that MD Anderson is aware of today for me. When we were told this news and the fact that I would probably only have a “few months” left, was likened to the day I learned I had stage IV cancer. The blood drains from you face and you feel like vomiting.

I plan to keep fighting and see what options my local doctors may have, get my affairs in order and ENJOY TODAY! We will also see what non-traditional things in the US are possible. But for this day I am grateful and smiling.

We always think/hope/pray we have longer to live and enjoy the time we have here, but no one know what the next day holds in store for us, so please ENJOY THE DAY, this day. Remember Yesterday, look forward to Tomorrow, but LIVE TODAY! In the course of every day find something or someone that makes you smile. I have that via family, friends and our 2 dogs and it makes my life full of love and joy.

Until next time You Keep Fighting Cancer and ENJOY THE DAY!

New Years Update

Update: Since starting the latest treatment, I’ve made through 2 ½ treatments. This is due to such bad blood counts.

Platelets are as low as I’ve ever seen at 15 – normal is 140-400
White blood cell count is now at 2.5 – normal is 3.8 - 10.8
Hemoglobin (red blood count) is 9.8 – normal is 13.2 – 17. 1

I need to have Platelets greater than 30 to get a treatment. With the numbers in a steady fail that’s not looking good right now. I’ve gone from 40, 4 weeks ago to 14. The doctors will not do a platelet infusion until I get below 10.

As for the white blood cell count, well I have no immune system left to fight even a cold. I’m still waiting on a call back to see if we can do anything about getting this number back in line, or at least closer to the line. 

So, instead of waiting for the doctors to take action, Lisa is breaking out the big guns again. The juicing machine is whirling as we speak.

Here is our Green Drink receipts and don’t say “uck” till you try them. They are very good;

Recipe 1
2 cored apples (green apples seem to work best, but any apple is good)
3-4 carrots peeled and topped

Recipe 2
2 cored apples (green apples seem to work best, but any apple is good)
2 hand full of spinach leaves
1 hand full of kale
1 hand full of dark grapes
Mint leave to taste (optional)
Wash all ingredients with veggie wash and rinse. Use organic when possible.  Add to juicer in reverse order to get the most out of each plant. Drink as soon as this is juiced to get the most nutrients as possible. Enjoy!

Lisa has me on a regiment of supplements also that will help my immune system and white blood counts.  Currently taking (but not limited to :)

Aloe Vera juice = George’s, it’s the only one I found that is taste free.
Probiotics
Daily Multi-Vitamin
Vitamin D-1000
Moducare = for immune system
Echinacea & Elderberry
A shot of fresh Wheatgrass

Trying to take in 5 serving s off fruit and 3 servings of vegetables a day, also. If you are eating your fruit raw, try to do so 30 minutes before you eat anything else. Your system will love you for this.

And finally as much Green Tea as I can drink, all this is giving me more energy also.

Till next time; You Keep Fighting Cancer and ENJOY THE DAY!

Another Year Spent

 Well I started on treatment number one again. This is the treatment that I first took back in 2008. This consists of Folfox, 5FU, Avastin … the side effects are bad in other ways from the last treatment that had Vectibix in it. 

The side effects are you feel like you have the flu, fatigue, nose bleeds and right now middle neropathy. Just got blood lab work back from yesterday and my platelets have dropped to below 30. This means that if today were treatment day I would not make the cut due to, too low of platelets. Another side effect.

“Another Year Spent”
 
As I reflect back on this past year and all the distance we have travel, I’m reminded of all the wonders in my life. The joy of waking up in the morning and see the sunrise if even behind a cloud or two is a present of the day. The joy and time spent with my family and good friends. 

Though the year had some tough moments, they were just that “moments” in time. The rash was the biggest hill I had to climb last year and now that I have made it over that in many ways I feel better. I can once again enjoy a shower or a whirlpool without the hours of pain that would follow either of these events. 

I also look back to see what I was able to get accomplished in my life and what did I learn last year. 

Learning is an ongoing process that hopefully you never find the end of that trail. The new advancements that are in work with cancer drugs and tools, better ways to eat to give your body the best fighting chance and finally learning more about myself. Example; here is a short article on a new blood test that is so sensitive it will be able to detect a signal cancer cell. That’s good news. 

Things that I did get done last year, I did get off my duff and got back to doing things that I enjoy. Time spent with family and friends. We were able to meet up with my aunt and uncle which was a very big deal for me this past year. To see them again and to tell them in person thank you for their help in my fight against cancer was important.

With the new treatment that I am on once again (Avastin, Folfox, 5FU…) I have several bad days, but as I remind myself I get to watch the sun rise each day and enjoy time as best I can and know tomorrow I will feel better.  

I’m waiting to see if my blood test result will allow me to have my next treatment. I will know tomorrow.

Never Give Up!

Here is a story of a man that is not giving up that I thought you might like and will fill your heart with hope;

Lester Warner is a hero in my book of those that NEVER GIVE UP !

Till next time – You Keep Fighting Cancer and ENJOY THE DAY!