The Tumornator: Tom's updates

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....