New Plan

Hi all,

I met with Dr. Michael J. Liptay today at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. I wanted a second opinion on whether it was possible to do the surgery minimally invasively. I picked him because he seemed to be the most experienced person doing video-assisted thoracic surgery in the city (he said he does 400 a year!) He said he starts all surgeries with the video-assisted and moves to the traditional surgery only after attempting it first. I thought that made a lot of sense. The chance of simplifying the recovery makes this slightly more attractive than Dr. DeCamp, though I have equal confidence in their ability.

The bottom line is that I am scheduled to have surgery on July 20th at Rush. I'm not doing my next chemotherapy treatment, so I have a couple weeks off before then. I am also hoping that either type of surgery may allow me to return to work on or close to the start of the school year. I would eventually resume chemo, but my oncologist wants to see how the surgery goes before setting up a plan.

Again, thank you for all your prayers and support.

I'm starting to feel a little better this morning. That seems to be the normal pattern so far. The new anti-nausea medication didn't have much effect, and ended up having other side effects. I also had more of the cold sensitivity this time, including my feet when I walked in the kitchen floor. It wasn't that bad, but it felt like I was standing on pins and needles.

Thankfully, my mom is coming in tomorrow morning to help me get my apartment packed up, before I move next week. We're also going to see the Return of the King movie with a couple of friends from school. It should be fun!

My next treatment is Wednesday, July 6. I hope to know more at that point about how many more treatments we'll do before the surgery.

Third Treatment (updated)

Today, I have started my third treatment. The doctor put me on a different anti-nausea medicine and so far I am feeling pretty good.(edit: Actually by late Thursday evening, I'm feeling about the same, which isn't awful, but not great.)

I have an online class meeting for grad school tonight. Then, I will spend the rest of the weekend reading for next week's class and resting.

My treatment finishes at 2 pm on Saturday. I will let you know how it goes.

Time with Family

I've spent the last five days in Maine with my family. It's been a lot of fun and very relaxing. On Friday, I went to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park with my dad and brother. It was a beautiful night and the Red Sox won!

The only negative part was that we couldn't relive our tradition of stopping at Dunkin' Donuts on the way home, because they were all closed, or had thrown out their donuts! When we got home to Maine at 1 am, we were just in time to pick up my sister Janet from the airport. She flew in during the middle of a long business trip to spend a couple of days with me and the rest of the family.

On Saturday and Sunday, I was able to spend time with some of my extended family, and my other sister, Liz, brother-in-law Phillip and my nephew Daniel. Daniel and I bonded over french fries and lots of ketchup at the Lobster Shack at Two Lights. He's growing up so fast!

Janet got up early Sunday morning to run 7 miles as a part of her training for the Chicago Marathon as a part of Team LiveStrong, before flying off to Seattle! However, before that I made a large family breakfast, and even Jordan, my parents' dog, got a sausage link when I dropped it on the floor.

Thursday and today, I spent most of my time reading articles for my summer graduate school class. It's a lot of work, but I do enjoy it when I am doing it...most of the time!

Tomorrow, we are going to one of my favorite seafood restaurants, Newick's Lobster House in Dover, New Hampshire. Then, most of us are heading down to Danvers, Massachusetts to see the extended edition of the Two Towers in the theater. Then I will be staying in the Boston area, so I can catch an early flight back to Chicago Wednesday morning.

It's been a really great trip. I've loved seeing my family, and it's been very relaxing and enjoyable. My third round of chemotherapy begins on Thursday, so I will let you all know how I am doing later this week. As always, thank you for your prayers and support.

Meeting with surgeon

I met this morning with Dr. Malcolm DeCamp, head of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I picked him after doing quite a bit of research, because he is a lung surgery specialist with lots of experience. He's optimistic about doing the surgery, but he did think it would have to be open surgery vs. video-assisted, because of the location.

He suggested waiting for a few more cycles of chemo to see how the tumor responds, which was my oncologist's plan. I have another consultation with a surgeon my oncologist recommended later this month.

I'm recovering alright from the chemotherapy treatment last week, and looking forward to visiting Maine for a week starting tomorrow.

Resting

The infusion at the office went pretty uneventfully today. Without the Avastin it was a much shorter process. Brett Marhanka and I watched episodes of The Office on my iPad. Now I am home and resting, with the 5-FU pump until Friday at 1:30.

My doctor gave me the name of a surgeon that he said is really good. I am going to call her office tomorrow and schedule an appointment. In addition, I am planning to contact one of the hospitals in the city for a second opinion at the same time. I'll update everyone on that when I know more.

School finished today, so I have time to rest up the next few days. Then, I am hoping to go home to Maine for a visit next week. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends back east, so hopefully I will feel up to the trip.

Thanks as always for your prayers.

Treatment number two

I just met with my oncologist. He is going to continue my treatment with Oxaliplatin and 5-FU. We are going to stop the Avastin, though because of the bleeding. He is also going to put me in touch with a surgeon to start looking into the possibility of removing the tumor. I will also probably go to one of the hospitals in Chicago to get a second opinion.

We're going to start the treatment soon. I'll update with more this evening.

Home again

I'm home again. It was a crazy couple of days. Thank you to the nurses and doctors who cared for me, including a former Wheaton College women's soccer player. Thank you to everyone who visited, called and prayed for me.

Update

I just spoke to the doctor who presented my case at the meeting this morning. She said that the tumor is close enough to the pulmonary artery that the surgeons felt it would be iffy to try and remove it at this point.

So their recommendation is to continue chemotherapy for a couple more sessions, without the Avastin, which may have contributed to the bleeding. Then, we would assess whether radiation was needed to further shrink the tumor before surgery. This is similar to the plan we had prior to this incident, though my doctor was skeptical about surgery.

Thanks again for your prayers. I will let you know when I have an idea when I might get out of here.

Well-timed side effect

Yesterday afternoon, I was feeling great for the first time since the chemo started on Thursday. Then out of nowhere, I started coughing blood. A couple of trips to the ER later, I was admitted to the Central DuPage Hospital ICU early this morning. The symptoms have lessened since this morning, but they want to hold me at least overnight for observation.

This was a rather shocking and scary development to say the least. It appears that the tumor is what caused the bleeding, but it was probably helped along by the Avastin. It seems to be under control now, and they did look at my lungs on CT and endoscopy.

The well-timed part is that tomorrow morning at CDH a group of pulmonologists, thorasic surgeons, oncologists, etc. are meeting for a conference. Because I was admitted to the ICU, they are going to discuss my case and what might be the best course of action now. There is some optimism that it might be possible to surgically remove the tumor.

The hand of God is clear to me in this unfortunate side effect, that has lead to an impressive collaboration about my condition. His timing is perfect, even when it is frustrating to have a good day devolve into a medical emergency. Thank you all for your continued prayers.

I will update with more information tomorrow about what they discussed and how long before I will be able to go home.