Dads EC

clant said:

dads EC
Sorry I left so much out. This is my first time on here and just wrote what was on my mind. He is stage III. We live in Iowa by the quad cities. He has been in the hospital so long because his blood pressure drops alot and he passes out. So they have been keeping him there. After he left there he went to skilled care so he can continue to have an IV because they thought he kept getting dehydrated and that's why his blood pressure kept dropping. I just talked to him a little bit ago and he said that his blood pressure dropped really low last night and there were alot of people in his room working on him. He has an IV now so I don't think that is the problem. He also has diabetes which i know is making this a lot worse. As far as insurance goes, he has medicare and medicade. No he has not been to a major cancer specialty hospital. Thats why we had an appointment at the mayo, so we could get another opinion but then at one point my dad said he was feeling better and so my mom cancelled it. I don't know if he would even be able to handle the drive there. As far as eating goes, he has gotten better with it. At one point he was throwing up everything, then he went to only eating soup, and now he is eating alot more pureed foods, and drinking milk and grape juice. He has not had an operation for this cancer yet, and he has received chemo and radaiation. He has 3 more radiations left and one chemo and then he is supposed to be done. As of now, we have surgery scheduled for Aug. 18th but if we can't find a way to get the blood pressure issue under control, then that will probably get pushed back. If you have any other questions or i didn't answer them enough just let me know. I am happy to get any advice or suggestions that anyone may have. I know eveyone on here knows hard hard and frustrating this can be. One day we think he is doing good and on the right path, then the next day something happens and we are back to square one. I also just want to say congratulations to all of you on here who have beat this disease.

clant said:

dads EC
Thank you for all the wonderful information. I am still trying to process it all. The only thing that I can add right now is I am not exactly sure what the name of his chemo medication is. As for the mayo clinic, we were going to take him to the one in Minnesota, but that has been cancelled. Right now, he is at the University of Iowa hospital. He has been there a few days, and they think he might be getting better. He has had a whole team of doctors there looking after him and trying to get him better. The last two days he got out of bed, and walked around and did not have the dizzy spells, so he might get to be released today. I will definately write the things down that you told me so I can ask the doctors questions and pass the wonderful information on to my mom and dad. I will keep you updated and let you know more when I find out exactly what his chemo med is and what type of surgery he will have done. He has an appointment on Aug. 5th for a scope to see if the cancer is gone also. Dad also has a port that he recieves his meds through so I am sure he will keep that for awhile after the surgery. As far as that j-tube you were speaking of, they tried to put a feeding tube down his throat, but that didn't work, he kept gagging. They had talked about the the j-tube but his surgeon said he could not have that done, but maybe he meant couldn't have it done before his surgery, I am not sure. Since he will not be able to eat after the surgery, he has to have that tube so he can get some nutrition so I know for sure, that is something I will be finding out about.