This morning I did the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I said good bye to my husband Steve. He peacefully passed away at 6:20 am and is no longer suffering. His soul is free from cancer, so he won!
Thank you all so much for your prayers, friendship and love over these past 2+ years.
On June 17, 2014 Steve had his first Colonoscopy. Thankfully the prep for it wasn’t too bad on him. The doctor wasn’t expecting to find the tumor because he looked at all the scans beforehand and even he saw nothing in the colon. So he was pretty curious as to what he’d see. And so were we. I was actually wondering if there might not even be a tumor and this would be a rare type of colon cancer. My husband would be the one to not have something easily found. Because he likes to be ‘different’. Well, that wasn’t the case. The doctor did find the tumor and it’s big. The mass is in the sigmoid colon. He said it’s pretty much the entire…
I forgot to mention in my previous post that the CT Scan also showed that the inflammation of his colon and the small perforation in the colon that they saw last time, is no longer visible. So that means that part healed. That made us VERY HAPPY because that means surgery is not in the future again… which is a good thing. Surgery is not something we want because that means no chemo for at least 6 weeks after and perhaps even more. Right now Chemo is what he needs. That was my Christmas Gift!
Steve finished his 8th round of chemo about a week ago. This was the 2nd round of chemo with the reduced 5-FU (along with a reduction of all meds due to his weight loss). The first time he didn’t see much of a difference as far as side effects go, but the second time he did. The 5-FU is responsible for the mouth sores and the tingling in his hands, fingers and feet mostly. I guess it’s also responsible for the exhaustion because this last round he wasn’t as tired either. He thought we has getting a mouth sore but it never really turned into one. And his taste buds finally came back this weekend. When he woke up Friday morning and realize that we…
Last week was great. Steve went to work, no doctor’s appointments, the girls fought like normal, I felt anxious about the girls fighting and Max pooped in the house. It was a normal week and it felt good. I think we needed that break from “cancer”. Just to realize that we are all still here and need to move along as normal as we can. It was nice. It recharged us for another week of Chemo. Dr. Sam told us that we “can’t change what is happening to Steve. We can only live each day as best as we can so we have no regrets.” And he is right. And while it’s hard to think that way every second of every day, we try…
Today Steve and I went to Dana Faber to meet with a research doctor in Gastrointestinal Cancers to talk about possible clinical trials. We did our research and talked with Steve’s Oncologist in Warwick beforehand and we were pretty sure there wasn’t anything that Steve qualified for so we weren’t expecting much. But figured a ride there wouldn’t hurt. And it didn’t hurt, nor did it help. We were correct. There is nothing right now for Steve’s specific cancer and mutation of his cancer. However, the doctor did offer to test Steve’s original biopsy sample to see if it has a specific mutation that it wasn’t tested for back in June 2014. While the doctor doesn’t think Steve’s cancer has this mutation according to other…
I’ve received so many texts, IM’s and messages with words of encouragement, love and support and I appreciate it so much! But please know that I am OKAY. We’ve expected his treatment to take this turn at some point and honestly, we thought it would be 2 months ago. I posted this on Facebook today but I know not everyone is on Facebook…… Thank you everyone for your prayers, thoughts and positive vibes. We are so lucky to have so many amazing people in our lives. I do feel blessed, considering the situation. The time we’ve had since his diagnosis has been a gift, a gift that one day the girls will realize was one of the best gifts ever. Right before Steve starts the…