Home again and recovery--NEW INFO 8/5!!!

 

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.  We got some food, the girls shopped, and listened to some music. 

Tom's procedure on Friday got off to a bit of a rough start at 1.5 hours late--but was much quicker than anticipated and he was done right at 1 hour.  The Dr. said the blood flow looked great after placement--the stent is in the portal vein--and no complications.  We spent 2.5 hours in recovery and then walked thru the subway/tunnel system right to our hotel.  He will be on a super low dose blood thinner for now to prevent any clots on the metal stent, but nothing else changes.  He's still a bit sore on his side (and abdomen from last week's procedure) and fatigued easily.    

We can see some results from the peritoneal washings from last week and the radiologists reports of the PET/MRI scan in Tom's patient portal--however we also learned from our last visit that Dr. Truty will review all the scans to ensure he's in agreement with them--so we are waiting to his from his team before sharing too many details.  We'll be reaching out tomorrow if they don't call or message us (we're impatient!)

***8/5 We did hear back from the surgeon's team that the tumor is responding well to the chemo with no new concerns, so we'll be continuing the same treatments, there was zero signs of cancer in the peritoneal washings, and that his portal vein stenting looked great as well!***  

Tom will be doing chemo this Wednesday since we had to shift last week with his procedure.  Not sure if this will be our new day or we'll be shifting again--that'll be a question for the oncology team this week.  

The most exciting news I will share is that Tom has been eating a bit more the past few days--we're not sure if the stent is allowing his abdominal organs to work better, having less pressure somewhere, the delay in chemo, or completely unrelated--but I'll take it.  He ate quite a bit at the hotel breakfast before coming home, a burger king cheeseburger and juice on the drive, and Outback last night and ate 3/4 of his meal!  He had breakfast burritos this morning, soup for lunch, and a gyro for dinner.  Keeping my fingers crossed it stays this way for a bit--not being able to eat or drink for test or procedure days is not helpful for calorie intake.