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51st Chemo Treatment this week!
Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve updated you all about Steve. I’ve been so busy between the girls being out of school, and my summer classes…. it’s been pretty crazy, to say the least! Steve had scans done about 1 month ago. The chest CT was a little blurry because he sneezed during it and the (dumb) girl CT technician told him it came out fine, but in fact, it didn’t. The radiologist that read the report couldn’t see everything, but from what he could see, the lungs were pretty much the same as the last scan. His liver is good as well. There has been a spot on his liver that has grow slowly since January. But the growth wasn’t very significant so…
Doctors Orders – No Salads!
So for those of you that know Steve well, you know that he isn’t big on fruits and veggies. He’s a meat and potatoes kind of guy (which also means low fiber – not good for the colon I’ve learned). However, when he first found out about the cancer, he vowed to do whatever he can to get his body healthy again and that included eating fruits and veggies if needed. While visiting with the Oncologist last week, he went over side effects of the chemo and asked us if we had any questions. Steve asked him if he should avoid any foods or eat certain foods to help repair the damage that the chemo will be doing to his body. I swear Steve had…
4 week CEA Check
Steve had an appointment this week with his oncologist to go over his blood work and his CEA number is 12 right now… it was 11 last month. That’s GOOD! No big jump. So chemo will stay the same for another month (2 treatments). The doctor scheduled a CT Scan and a Bone Scan the beginning of March before we see him again. If there is a 20% increase or there are new tumors, he’ll switch his chemo to the Oxiliplatian (for 6 months), if not then he’ll stay as he is for another month. That being said, it was a good appointment because he can keep going with this chemo for another month. So we bought another month! In the meantime, we are going…
A month + later…..
It’s a little over a month later and the girls and I have began moving forward with our life without Steve. I won’t lie, it’s awful. Some days are okay, but lately most are not. I’m really struggling with this. I thought I would be okay. I thought I was prepared for this. I thought I grieved the last 2+ years, and I thought that was hard. This is worse. I was no where near ready for losing him. I was no where near ready for the pain of missing someone that has been in my life, every day for 18 years. Especially losing them when you have no choice. I also thought we had more time. I thought we had one more Thanksgiving… one…
Time for Surgery!
A week ago Wednesday, Steve’s doctor ordered an MRI to get a better look at his spine and the tumors to see if Radiation would be good or not. When the radiologist read the MRI he contacted Steve’s doctor and suggested that Steve go to the hospital immediately to have the spine doctors look at the MRI. The concern was that the tumors were too close to his spinal cord and they were afraid of paralysis. So at 10pm last Wednesday night, Steve and I headed to Rhode Island hospital where they gave him a steroid to relieve some of the swelling around the spinal cord to avoid the compression. The spine doctors then looked at the MRI and decided that with the steroid, there…
Today is Steve’s First CT Scan
Steve is going this morning for his first CT Scan. We are pretty hopeful that it will look good because of how good his CEA number has been. But seeing it will be good to reassure us that the Chemo is working. He will also have is CEA number checked on Monday. We will have the results of both of those tests on Tuesday when we meet with his Oncologist. Steve has been getting mouth sores the last 3 cycles and they are unbearable for him. We’ve been trying all sorts of ways to make them better and possibly avoid them but after talking to the doctor yesterday, we are thinking of pulling back on one of the Chemotherapy drugs a little bit. There is…