Thursday, March 11, 2010

CT Scan Results

Well the day has come and gone, the day we hear the results of Ed's CT scan. The scan itself was done on Monday. I didn't go with Ed. He figured why should I sit there in the waiting room and it wasn't a big deal last time. So off he went in the morning having had his coffee with no cream (only clear liquids 3 hours before). He ended up being there a couple hours and had to drink some kind of liquid (barium?) before the CT scan inself. This was in addition to the intravenous iodine. There was a schedule and he had to drink like 8 oz every 15 mins over an hour plus. This wasn't anything he had to do last time, so we didn't expect it.

After we thought about it though, last time it was before he was diagnosed with cancer. They weren't sure what they were looking for (we were) so they did a CT scan from the lower esophagus to the colon. This time, they knew they needed to look closely from the upper chest to the colon and they were looking specifically for the tumors so they could compare growth, size, etc.

Another patient of Dr. Bowers was also there to get his CT scan. This is a gentlemen we see on our Tuesday treatment day (we don't know his name, but Ed calls him "the guy who talks a lot"). So they talked a lot and shared stories over their drinks of barium.

So that was Monday. Wednesday, March 10th was our appointment with Dr. Bowers to receive the results. On one hand, we weren't too worried thinking how can the news possibly be worse than the last CT scan (which was the first one back in November that started us on this journey). It's clear from external exams that Ed's liver has been shrinking, so the chemo has helped there. We just hoped the other tumors were responding as well.

Unfortunately, we did not receive the news that the cancer is miraculously gone. Wouldn't that have been nice?! It would have been a miracle and not what we figured we'd hear, but you can always hope, right?

So here's a run down of the results:
  • The lump in his chest, outside his esophagus--this was not captured clearly on the last CT scan. Initially when Dr. Bowers and his team were reviewing the CT scan they noticed this lump and told us about it at Ed's first chemo treatment. We all agreed at that time, we'd just keep moving ahead with the current plan since the chemo certainly wasn't going to do any harm to the lump. Well, the lump is still there. It may be enlarged lymph glands, but they can't tell if it's any bigger or smaller since there was not a good capture of it initially. They could do a biopsy. If it's the colon cancer, treatment would remain the same. However, if it's a lymphona, treatment may need to change. Because it doesn't appear this lump is causing Ed any difficulty (chest pain, difficulty swallowing or eating) and we really weren't interested in doing a biopsy or changing our treatment before Italy, we agreed that we would continue on the current treatment and do another CT scan after 2-3 treatments. We could then evaluate whether the lump is getting bigger or smaller and make an informed decision about next steps.
  • One lymph gland in the chest is smaller. Okay...not sure what all these lymph gland things are, but whatever...it's smaller so that's got to be a good thing!
  • Moving down to the liver, there are still some spots, but they seem smaller and there are no new spots. There is evidence of calcification (which I haven't fully researched) but Dr. Bowers said is a good thing because it indicates death of bad cells.
  • And finally in the sigmoid colon, the tumor doesn't seem to have changed but it's difficult to fully evaluate this via a CT scan. So Dr. Bowers will be speaking to Dr. Berkman about scheduling another colonoscopy to look at this more closely. Something for Ed to look forward to.
So no big surprises but another CT scan and a colonscopy will be in our near future. Dr. Bowers though gave us the go ahead to head to Italy and will also reduce the dosage for the treatment Ed receives the day before we leave.

Thank you all for your good thoughts and prayers. We march on...

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Problem with blog fixed

Sorry about the recent problem with the pop-up ad that was taking over our blog! (Thank you Cassie for letting me know about this.) Come to find out, it was the gadget I added to count down the days until Dan returns from Italy that was causing the problem. So, unfortunately, I had to remove it. Is someone trying to tell me something?? Hmmmm....

On a different note, tomorrow, March 10th, we receive the results of Ed's CT scan that was done on Monday. I'll try to post an update as soon as possible to keep you all posted.

My Story

Lately I find myself moving through the days, being with others, laughing, and living life. Days pass quickly and grief, sadness, and feelin...