June, July updates and thoughts

Hello,

After somebusy weeks I wanted to give you an update.

So what happened in the last months...
So May was the hardest month ever. One metastasis grew from 22mm to 51mm in 3 weeks time. The doctors were scared and told us so. Due to that they started Folfiri plus Avastin. The MRI 2 weeks after showed stable disease with some regression.
They also started a bunch of tests...
Slowly, the results are coming in. 17th August we have a talk with the oncologist. I am back home so I am joining my dad to ask a bunch of questions. I do hope that we get some good news. Before is a whole body CT and I am grateful for that. They are checking his liver but I want to be sure that lungs and over lymph nodes are free.

For now 6 months of chemo lies ahead of us. Sometimes it is more difficult for Papa to handle knowing there is no end but he responded good to the treatment and handles this chemo better than Folfox.
Recently he had by accident one wee break from chemo. There was a mess up with appintments. So in 4 weeks he only had one TACE but no chemo. That was really nice for him. Because of the TACE we have regular MRIs of the liver, so even though there was a longer break it did not show anything. 2 weeks after he had chemo again. Again there is a mess up with chemo and TACE... New doctors are handling the wards...
His oncologist left but according to Papa the new one is also good. Besides there was always a team of 3 oncologists discussing it besides the tumor board.

But yeah from scared doctors in May, we changed to satisfied doctors. The doctors gained control again.
Except for the high GGT, his liver markers are in the normal ranges. Soon there will be a CT.

We also checked for antibodies after the covid vaccine. He had both doses with no side effects and there is the information that the vaccine can fail in cancer patients. But Papa has antibodies.

I also read that apparently the growth is faster in immunocompromised patients. The aunt of my flatmate asked a collegue. According to the collegue it is the best treatment. She also said 'poor prognosis'. I hate these words obviously. So, I looked around for people with immunocompromised immune system and colon cancer like people with lupus or people with my dads KRAS mutation. I found people who beat it. One has the same KRAS like my dad, one of the worst ras mutations. Cancer free for some years already. Others have lupus and also had nothing for 2 years. With that said: what says that my dad is not one of these cases?

My dad said "when he is healthy again". Why not? The chemo does its work. He eats good. TACE is also doing its work. The intensity of the lesions is decreasing. So they are getting less active.
During the talk, I want to give the oncologist the study about liver transplants. I know he is an oncologist but he can provide this to the surgeon and they can discuss it during the tumor board. My dad is against it, I say it is my decision if I donate or not. But for now I hope that keytruda might be an option for the future. We did not hear anything about it, so I assume for now it does not. But then Papa had no long talks yet.

I am home again now. It was beautiful to see my parents again.
Yesterday I had some struggle... Both my parents dont have the best health. Papa cancer and my mom never takes care fir herself. Others are coming first even before her own health. Mama is 53 but due to the health issues my dad has. It is more important to support him than do a colonoscopy for example. Yes, Papa is important but my moms health is also important and due to the stress she just got another pill to lower her blood pressure. I still have 2 grandparents, both above 80, my grandpa died 2 years ago with 85. I am lucky to have healthy grandparents and I was just shocked that my own future children might not be so lucky to get to know their grandparents like I did. That was hard to take...

Btw next year at this time I am done with my studies. You can call me Dr Tueffel then

Tueffel