Update...

Rob just had a scan: no change from the previous in April. That is fabulous. Wahoo!

This scan was a little different than all others he has received. It was an angio CT. He had been having some pains in his lungs (different and more than usual) and some swelling in his legs. His palliative doc thought that he might be having a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in his lungs). She wanted to make sure that, that wasn't the case.

All clear on the clot front. Another bullet dodged?

He is still continuing with chemo every three weeks. He gets poisoned next week, in fact. When people see Rob, they say, "Wow, he looks great! He looks normal." He really does. He has lost ten pounds in just under two months. He doesn't eat near as much. In fact, looking at his plate yesterday and mine, I was really embarrassed how much food was on mine. I felt like Miss Piggy in all her glory. Oink...

People who have not experienced chemo first-hand, think of chemo like what is seen in the movies. Since real-life is not always like the movie, I thought I would share what this particular chemo does to Rob. The name of the drug is called Alimta.

• It does not make his hair fall out. I think that people are surprised that he is having chemo, since he still has hair.


• He mostly feels crummy for one week after. Someone asked me how quickly he can feel the effects of the chemo. The whole process takes about 1.5 hours. When we are driving home, he is feeling it.


• The day of chemo his face turns a funky yellowish-greenish color.


• The day after chemo, his face turns bright red and swells a little; think dodge ball. It is like he is burnt - he actually has a bunch of freckles from this chemo - it is called hyperpigmentation. His appetite is somewhat there. He eats, but not much (hence the weight loss).


• After the first week, he starts to feel a little better. Tired still, but not as the first week. A little nausea, but nothing that a bunch of pills won't help.


• He is exhausted, but cannot sleep. Too much on his brain? Not sure...


• The week right before, he starts to feel a little sick again. Nausea sets in again and he is very tired.


• He can function and do the things he needs to. He can help me around the house, play with the kids, drive himself to work for a few hours a day a couple days a week (not the chemo week, though). He just has to pace himself. He will take a nap for a few minutes or several hours, depending on how much he has done that day or week. He is not sitting in his cancer chair all day long.

I have tried to take a picture of him during the 'face of many colors' but he is pretty adamant that I don't. I guess he doesn't want that chronicled. Hmmm. Next week, we meet with Dr. Litton's PA, the palliative care doc, and get chemo. Cannot wait!

The Weekend Countdown

Today, Rob is going to give blood. This is something that he has to do prior to his CT scans to make sure that his liver is still functioning. (Heaven forbid something else breaks down, right? We already know that he is a defective model and since we forgot to purchase the extended warranty on him, we are out of luck. hehehe)

Just in case you were wondering what we are going to do the next week, I thought I would lay it out for you...

• Thursday: 4 pm - give blood
• Friday: all day - think about the scan
• Saturday: all day - think about the scan
• Sunday: all day - take a break from thinking about the scan - since it is a day of rest
• Monday: 8:15 am - get the scan
• Monday: all day - think about the scan
• Tuesday: 9 am - Jessica to call oncology office to find out the results of the scan
• Tuesday: until 5 pm - wait until the doctor calls back

OR

• Tuesday: 12 noon-ish - go online to myhealth.com (Intermountain's super-cool website that allows their patients to go and look up their some of their medical information, including, but not limited to, x-rays, scans, blood work, did I mention scans?) -- This will only work, if the radiologist gets it in the system ASAP, otherwise, see the above step.
• Wednesday - July 31: all day/night - breath a sigh of relief, since everything will be just fine.

(He did go 3.5, well, 3.2 years without it coming back - so I am thinking that it would be abnormal if it came back this soon - RIGHT??? It has only been five months since his surgery.)

So, what I am trying to say is this: if you pray, please do so. If you don't, think about doing so.

What is even better than this? Doing it again in September! YAYAYAYAYAY! (I can hardly wait.)

Good News & Markers

We've got some good news and some good news...

Rob's CT came back clean! See! No sense in worrying, right??? (We shall see how well I am doing before the next scan in June.) The report was hilarious: "There is evidence for prior right lower lobe and right middle lobe resection." Really? What gave that away?

The other good news (or bad?): Rob does NOT have the EGFR marker in his tumor. By the way, if you are interested, the tumor was sent to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. The actual wording was: "This tumor expresses EGFR weakly by immunohistochemistry and is FISH negative. No predictive mutations are identified. This tumor would appear to be unlikely to respond to EGFR blockade." EGFR blockade is the Tarceva (not having to take that is the good news, or if you are thinking the other way, not having to take that is the bad news).

If you are wondering what FISH is, it is not an underwater thingy that has gills and swims constantly. It is "fluroescence in situ hybridization" which means it is a process which looks at the internal structure of the cell.

So, we have made the decision to not have adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation. At this point, Rob will have CTs every three months, CTs with a PET scan every eight months. The PET scan picked up Rob's second tumor whereas the regular CT did not. However, PET scans often have false positives - no need for the added stress of thinking there is a tumor when there really isn't. Regular CTs have a finer resolution.

Are you thinking, "Well, if the regular CT has a finer resolution, why didn't it show the second tumor?" Yeah, that was my thinking as well. Apparently, the tumor was too small to see on a regular CT, but it showed up with 'hypermetabolic activity' (after Rob was pumped full of radioactive isotopes). I guess anything will show up if one has enough radioactive materials in their body.

Rob hopes to start work soon, if his boss and co-workers will have him back : ). (Call me if you don't, just in case, so we can let him down lightly...) hehehe.

He would love to get back into school as well - provided he can make it through an eight-hour work day and an additional seven hours of school/study time. Can you believe the schedule he was keeping? Yeah, neither can I. It has been fantastic having him home and around (even when he was taking many, many naps).

We are so grateful for the many, many prayers, thoughts, cards, meals, and calls on our behalf. We love you and feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our life!

We are not safe yet, but we are glad that the surgery part is over and that there is no chemo or radiation in the near future. YAY!!!!