Long awaited update

Okay, as some of you have pointed out, I've been pretty bad about updating the blog lately. Sorry about that! I had a couple of appointments today and thought it would be a good time to let you all know how things are going.

One of my appointments was with the radiation oncologist to look at my three month follow up CT scan. She was very happy with how it looks. The size hasn't changed much since May, but she sees signs that the tumor is dead. Unless I have dramatically increased pain (I still have some lingering pain) or other signs that something is wrong, she doesn't think that we need to follow that spot in particular. In addition, she looked through the rest of the CT report and didn't see anything of concern. I see the medical oncologist at the end of the month to see what he thinks the best plan is in terms of monitoring me on a more global basis.

My other appointment was with the wound care nurse and one of my surgeons. Five weeks ago, I had surgery to clean out an infection. It left me with a large open wound that needs to heal from the inside out. I have been using a wound vac the last five weeks that is supposed to speed healing, but lately it hasn't been as effective as we hoped. So today we decided to stop using that machine and opt for regular dressing changes two or three times a day. Progress was really slow on the vac, so while I'm not too hopeful that it will heal quickly, it can't go much slower, and I don't have to carry the vac everywhere. It should also be easier for starting school a week from Monday. I can't believe the summer is almost over!

Anyway, thanks for all your continuing prayers. I will update again at least when I meet with the medical oncologist at the end of the month.

Update

Sorry it's been a while since I updated the blog. I've been feeling better the last few weeks, but a week after the drain fell out part of my incision began leaking fluid in relatively large amounts. We've tried managing it for the last three weeks, while waiting for it to heal, but it hasn't improved. As a result, I am having a surgical procedure today that will hopefully help speed the healing process.

It's been kind of a frustrating process these last two months. I'm ready to be back to normal, but my body just won't cooperate. Mom is still here helping me manage these issues. She's been gone from Maine a long time. I know Daniel and Lillian are looking forward to the time when Nana can come home. I really appreciate all her help these last two and a half months.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Please pray that this procedure will be without complications and that my body will finally be healed soon. Thanks, Steve

Slow improvement

I've had a string of some pretty good days in a row lately. My nausea seems to be a thing of the past and I am getting my appetite and strength back. I did develop a wound issue with my incision, but it seems to be manageable. Hopefully, it will heal quickly and I can get back to normal.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

A good day

Praise the Lord for a good day! Thanks for your prayers. Please keep them coming. 

Almost no nausea today, more energy and the final surgical drain was removed (because it had basically fallen out after five weeks).

Hopeful for another good day tomorrow, but thankful either way.

Update

Surgery was a little more than a month ago, and my body is feeling pretty good given all the work they did on it. I'm still in a daily fight with nausea, which makes it hard to eat and accomplish anything. Mom's still here trying to help me cope with this. She's amazing!

We did a CT scan which didn't reveal anything that can explain my nausea, so the doctor are sort of out of answers. Please pray that I can overcome this quickly. Thank you.

Radiation complete

I finished my two weeks of radiation today. Thanks to the surgery and my surgeon moving a piece of small bowel away from the tumor, we were able to be more aggressive in treating the tumor. It would have been really dangerous to have treated it this way with the small intestine in the way. So I am very thankful that the Lord used the emergency surgery to bring about a better outcome.

It can take a while for the full effect of the radiation to kick in, so I will see the doctor again in four weeks. For now, I'm going to spend time focusing on resting and recovering from the surgery. My nausea is improving slightly. Thanks for all your prayers and for some good advice from my aunt Beth.

I also saw the surgeon yesterday. He removed one of the drains and the staples from my incision. I go back in a week to see if the other drain will be ready to be removed.

Have a good weekend!

Long Road

Sorry for the long gap between updates. Radiation has been leaving me extremely fatigued. My pain has been improving somewhat, so otherwise it has been going well. I have two more days of radiation then we'll reassess in four weeks.

The other roadblock is some nausea that I have been experiencing. I took some medicine to attack the likely cause. It worked, too well! Now I have actually had worse nausea the last two days. It makes it really hard to eat and keep my strength up. Please pray that this will start to lessen and I can get back to normal.

I see the surgeon tomorrow. I'll try to post about that in the afternoon.