Saturday, July 4th, 2015
Happy Fourth of July!
Well........Mike's CEA level as of June were disappointing. With everything that Mike has been doing to try to hollisticaly treat his cancer himself, his CEA level rose to 3534. His liver profile levels have risen as well. At that time, Mike still did not want to give into chemotherapy. He wanted to give it another month to see if he could knock that number down himself without taking on the damaging chemotherapy. Mike is scheduled to return for a repeat blood test on July 15th and a follow up on July 22nd with his oncologist, however, Mike has resigned to the decision that he is going to have to do chemo again to get that number down. He has said that the only thing that will get him through this round of chemo would be knowing that he has the opportunity of returning to Germany. So we are going to try to do our best to save as much as we can and do some fund raising to get the money for him to go to see Dr. Weber. However, Mike has a call to his oncologist who is on vacation this week so that he can get things going to start the process to start the chemo.
About 3 weeks ago, Mike was having pain in his side that he thought was probably coming from his liver cancer. At that time, he decided it was best to go to the Emergency Room at our local hospital. We checked in, but unfortunately after waiting 4 hours in the waiting room, Mike decided he could not wait any longer. We left without him being seen so he could go home and lie down.
This past week on Monday, Mike started having pain again in his stomach area. He developed sweats but at the same time was freezing. He sweated so much that he had to change his clothing. As the week went on, he felt better. Last evening after dinner, Mike decided to lie down and take a nap. Once again, he woke up with pain in the stomach and was soaked, but yet could not get warm. He went to bed, got up this morning with all the same symptoms and decided he needed to go back to the Emergency Room. Luckily this time, he was taken back to the treating area right away. He was started on fluids, had blood drawn, and a CT scan was ordered. The doctor came in after reviewing the test results and talked to us. He said the CT scan showed the liver nodules were a little bigger and that they were probably stretching the capsule around the liver, He said that was probably causing the pain and also causing the itching. He said there was some fluid in his stomach which was due to some inflammation. He said that could cause the fever. He is discharging Mike with a pain medication and told him to take some Benadryl for the itching at night as it makes him fall asleep.. During the day, he is to take Tagamet, Pepsid, or Zantac which will act as an antihistamine to help his itching. He also told Mike to call his oncologist on Monday and have him look at the scan and get things going for treatment.
I know the thought of what Mike will go through during the chemo has him dreading the upcoming days, weeks, and months as he knows how he will suffer through it. It just breaks my heart as well knowing how much this will take out of him and watching him go through this. My prayer is that he is able to tolerate this as best he can without too many difficulties. I send prayers and well wishes to everyone else who is going through this awful disease.
"I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me." PHP 4:13
Happy Fourth of July!
Well........Mike's CEA level as of June were disappointing. With everything that Mike has been doing to try to hollisticaly treat his cancer himself, his CEA level rose to 3534. His liver profile levels have risen as well. At that time, Mike still did not want to give into chemotherapy. He wanted to give it another month to see if he could knock that number down himself without taking on the damaging chemotherapy. Mike is scheduled to return for a repeat blood test on July 15th and a follow up on July 22nd with his oncologist, however, Mike has resigned to the decision that he is going to have to do chemo again to get that number down. He has said that the only thing that will get him through this round of chemo would be knowing that he has the opportunity of returning to Germany. So we are going to try to do our best to save as much as we can and do some fund raising to get the money for him to go to see Dr. Weber. However, Mike has a call to his oncologist who is on vacation this week so that he can get things going to start the process to start the chemo.
About 3 weeks ago, Mike was having pain in his side that he thought was probably coming from his liver cancer. At that time, he decided it was best to go to the Emergency Room at our local hospital. We checked in, but unfortunately after waiting 4 hours in the waiting room, Mike decided he could not wait any longer. We left without him being seen so he could go home and lie down.
This past week on Monday, Mike started having pain again in his stomach area. He developed sweats but at the same time was freezing. He sweated so much that he had to change his clothing. As the week went on, he felt better. Last evening after dinner, Mike decided to lie down and take a nap. Once again, he woke up with pain in the stomach and was soaked, but yet could not get warm. He went to bed, got up this morning with all the same symptoms and decided he needed to go back to the Emergency Room. Luckily this time, he was taken back to the treating area right away. He was started on fluids, had blood drawn, and a CT scan was ordered. The doctor came in after reviewing the test results and talked to us. He said the CT scan showed the liver nodules were a little bigger and that they were probably stretching the capsule around the liver, He said that was probably causing the pain and also causing the itching. He said there was some fluid in his stomach which was due to some inflammation. He said that could cause the fever. He is discharging Mike with a pain medication and told him to take some Benadryl for the itching at night as it makes him fall asleep.. During the day, he is to take Tagamet, Pepsid, or Zantac which will act as an antihistamine to help his itching. He also told Mike to call his oncologist on Monday and have him look at the scan and get things going for treatment.
I know the thought of what Mike will go through during the chemo has him dreading the upcoming days, weeks, and months as he knows how he will suffer through it. It just breaks my heart as well knowing how much this will take out of him and watching him go through this. My prayer is that he is able to tolerate this as best he can without too many difficulties. I send prayers and well wishes to everyone else who is going through this awful disease.
"I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me." PHP 4:13
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