Scan results

What a week we have had! On Tuesday we traveled to MDAnderson for CT scan, x- ray and lab work. On Thursday results were given. The words we had been waiting to hear were said. Many of the lymph nodes are now "resolved", as well as sites in the bones that previously had shown slight metastasis. No metastatic disease was found in the lungs. The thickening in the esophagus that had been the entire length is now only noted in the lower third of the esophagus. Praise the Lord, what great news this was to hear! All of his blood was good as well. Our doctor was concerned that Rickie has continued to lose weight and has had difficulty getting anything solid down in the last month and he was finally willing to refer him for a feeding tube. He prescribed the same chemo (Irinotechan and erbitux) however he was not happy that our hometown doctor had tweaked it somewhat. MDA dr. had wanted Rickie to receive it once every two weeks, but dr. at home had reduced the dosage by a 1/4 and had him receiving it every week. He said that that was probably why he had troubles with diarrhea and weight lost, because he was over medicated. So now he wants him to only take the chemo every third week. This is such a weird situation, as I feel like dr. egos are playing into this. That certainly is not what we want. I asked if dr. at home could contact him and discuss the treatment and he said to have him email him. we just want everyone on the same page. I get the feeling that they don't like it that we go home for the chemo, but Rickie was so tired of the long trips back and forth to Houston that it just seemed better that way. So then it was on to the gusto dr. to see about feeding tube. This dr. Explained to us that they would do a PEG tube because it is a less evasive placement. Also he said that they have fewer problems with the tube getting clogged or pulled out. I questioned him about the j tube and he told us they only do that if you are already having surgery or laposcopy for some reason. Since Rickie is not a candidate for surgery, he felt this would be best. I had my concerns because we knew that the tumor extended about 4 cm into the stomach, but he said that would not be a problem. So Friday we go back for the feeding tube placement. WhenRickie came into recovery I noticed that it didn't look like anything had been done. Rickie felt around on his stomach and nope nothing there. So now I was getting concerned as to just what happened. The nurse finally came around and said that there were some problems and that nothing was done. She told us to go wait in the consultation room for the doctor to come talk to us. As it was it was 4:00 Friday afternoon, so we knew we probably would not get many answers then. Finally the doctor came in and said he was not able to place the tube as apparently part on the small intestine was looped up where the wire was suppose to go into the stomach, so he could not find the wire. After several tries he decided to abort the procedure and consult with interventional radiology to see what could be done. That of course would not be done until Tuesday when they have team meetings. So there we were with no feeding tube and no options until next week. The only good thing is that when he tried to get the endoscope through the esophageal junction it was so closed up that he had to balloon it in order to get into the stomach (he did mention to Rickie,Now he understood why he could not get anything down). This has allowed Rickie to eat the first solid foods he has had in over a month. So now we are back at home waiting to hear what plan they come up with. Whatever they decide I know we will request that it be done at the beginning of the week not on a Friday afternoon. Needless to say Rickie is getting frustrated with all of this and even though we had good news overall his spirits were down. Hopefully a few days of getting to eat will give him strength to deal with this.