The Tumornator: Tom's updates

Chemo #9 got wrapped up this week.  For those that haven't heard it was a bit of a wacky Wednesday this past week.  Tom and I hung out at chemo until I got a call from the school nurse for Scarlett.  During PE Scarlett rolled her ankle pretty badly and needed picked up.   While I was taking her home, Tom texted me that the chemo suite lost power! Luckily they had some emergency flood lights and fully charged pumps so he could finish the last 30 minutes, but he had to walk down 5 flights of steps and maintenance was propping open the automatic doors.   To be safe, I took Scarlett to DMOS urgent care (they were awesome and in/out in about 1.5 hours) Good news, no breaks--just a bad sprain.  She got a compression sock and soft brace to help healing.  She did have to miss her volleyball game this week though                                       Be...

Some of you have already heard this information from one of us--but Tom's visit earlier this week on 9/3 had a bit of good news for us.  His lab work is still looking really good!  His white blood cells, neutrophils, and platelets all are holding steady which means chemo proceeds as normal without delays. Lots of people run into issues the longer they receive chemo. His CA 19-9 has dropped again to 467.  For those of us without pancreatic cancer, normal numbers are under 35.  I believe I shared previously, but during our first visit in May, it was 3500ish.  It's possible that was still higher than it should have been from just the cancer with all the other abdominal inflammation and issues he was having in May...but the continued dropping is a good sign that the chemo should be helping the tumor die off.   The other exciting news is Tom has gained some weight back 😋  He's back up above 150lbs!  We are continuing to take enzymes to absorb nut...

Some of you have already heard, but Tom developed his first fever since diagnosis last week.  Unsurprisingly, like everything else about cancer and chemo--illness gets a lot more complicated!  He went to bed not feeling great and chilled, but no fever.  However, he woke up at 630 on Thursday morning with a 101.9 fever.  It dropped slightly between 101.5-101.7 once he got out from under his 3 blankets 😮 Much to Tom's chagrin, I called the oncology office to see what they wanted us to do.  After determining we lived nearby, they requested we come in ASAP so they could check bloodwork and examine Tom.  Luckily his bloodwork looked great and he had no other new symptoms beyond the fever. They anticipated it was likely viral and sent us home with the standard reminders to rest, drink plenty of fluids, and manage his fever with Tylenol.  His viral panel actually come back clear (everything was negative) on Friday. They also drew blood cultures, which we hav...

We're officially on the downhill slide of our original plan for chemo!  Time for the good news/bad news...Tom has continued to lose weight despite consuming plenty of calories; he's at roughly 147lbs 😕  He's had GI symptoms since this all started in May despite dietary and medication changes.  They suggested we utilize a couple of the medications routinely vs. PRN to see if we can get better results, so we are trying that this week and I'm reaching out to Mayo to see if their team or dietician there has any additional ideas.  Luckily dehydration hasn't been a concern! On the positive note, he is continuing to eat better and has been requesting steak, pasta, and pizza along with eating out a few times since Mayo's visit. The good news is his blood work looks better this week than it did 2 weeks ago (a few labs were off following his procedure at Mayo the end of July) and they are back to his baseline.  His CA 19-9 (the tumor marker) continues to drop and is curr...

 I totally missed updating the blog this past week, so it's been 11 days since I added the last news from Mayo results.  So sorry--luckily for us, nothing super crazy was happening 😉 Tom completed his #6 chemo on Wed 8/6 and was wrecked that afternoon/evening but was feeling better by the weekend.  No new symptoms, just the fatigue kicking his butt and continued increase in cold sensitivity in his fingers.  He had mostly maintained his weight for the 3 weeks according to their scale (which seems a little sketchy) but fingers crossed it continues.  He was down 0.4lbs, but his appetite has remained better (not great, but better) and we focus on high calorie/protein foods and drinks.   Tom and I had dinner out with his boss and a few co-workers which was nice.  I've met some of them once before, but the others I had never met.  Tom was in the same boat--he's worked for his boss for a couple years and obviously spoken with her frequently, but ha...

  We spent a couple days at Mayo earlier this week getting Tom his PET scan/MRI that we hoped to have completed last week...and Tom also had the procedure to put a stent in the vein in his abdomen.  We took the girls with us again AND they convinced me to travel with the dogs.  This is the first time since I moved from Texas 23 years ago that I've traveled with pets.  Overall it went really well, but I also remember why it's a bit of a pain.  When they wake up early in the morning, I can't just open the back door and let them potty--there is shoes, leashes, and elevators involved.  We also stayed downtown directly across the street from one of the Mayo buildings so had to walk a little bit to grass.  Definitely an experience, but the puppies were awesome and loved sleeping with the girls or us on the beds.   We did get to have a bit of fun on Thursday as they have a farmers market type event every Thursday in the summer downtown from 11-8p....