Some of you know that there is NY Giants player (former Boston College) who is a Ewing's Sarcoma survivor. This was one of his tweets today:
@MarkHerzlich:
2 yrs ago I was told I might never walk again. Just WALKED off plane in Indy to play in The #SuperBowl. #TakeThatSh*tCancer
That was so freakin' awesome it gave me chills so I had to share with you guys.
Go Giants!
On another note - Scott is feeling a lot better the past couple days - he even worked several hours the past two days and has slept in bed. I wanted to pass along the good progress. :)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Another setback
Scott was able to have chemo on Wednesday - his labs showed that his counts rallied enough. That's great news - he needs to be able to receive his chemo treatments every two weeks. The bad news, is that the PET Scan on Tuesday showed that the cancer has metastasized to his liver. There are two small masses on his liver now - but "small" is an important word - and they may be able to be surgically removed them at a later time. This was not the news we wanted to hear, but these two small masses are not the worst case scenario, either. Scott's Doctors hope the chemo will also shrink these, or at least keep them at bay, and the focus will continue to be on the large tumor in his pelvis.
Scott's major challenge right now is being able to push through the pain. He's amazing - he's been so strong and is trying to do what he can, despite the pain. Things got very complicated in the beginning of the week - he has been getting sick on and off for the past couple weeks, and one time after/during getting sick, he felt a very sharp pain around the site of his pelvic tumor. He literally couldn't move for hours. The Doctor's were afraid he may have fractured his pelvis, but thankfully, an xray showed that wasn't the case. They still aren't sure what happened - it may have been a pinched nerve in the area. The next day or two, he was able to get around with a walker, but his mobility is challenged right now. Today was a better day - only the cane was used for parts of it and he was able to lay down flat for a bit. We think the Fentanyl patches are the culprit for the nausea, so he's looking forward to ending those and, instead, increasing the dosage of Morphine he's taking. (Ok, not looking forward to it, necessarily, but anxious to not be sick anymore!) We know that if he can get past the vomiting and subsequent pain, he will regain some strength to keep battling.
If the pain hasn't started decreasing after this chemo session, he's going to have another MRI before the next chemo session on the 8th. (MRI on the 7th). The Doctor's will see if the chemo is having a positive response on the tumor at that time. If not, they will likely try a different chemo regimen, and there's a very good possibility of starting radiation in conjunction with chemo. Surgery is just not an option in the near future - he's body and counts are not strong enough and he can't stop the chemo for as long as he would need to in order to recover from the surgery. We're reminded that cancer is like many other illnesses - there is sometimes some experimentation with medicine required in order to see what a particular person will respond to. Once they find the chemo drugs that stop the cancer from growing (and radiation to shrink the tumor), then we'll see some progress in the right direction.
You all would be so impressed with him - many people would not be so strong. He tries to laugh and make jokes when he can, and he just pushes through. In discussion with his Doctors last week, they said how surprised they were that he was still working in between treatments. Many people in his shoes would have taken disability, but he's still working. I'm not sure if the mobility challenges will change things, but I pray they won't. Being at work makes him happy and he loves his coworkers - they help keep him strong and positive (and the distraction doesn't hurt).
I also wanted to thank you all for your continued offers of assistance. I truly wish there was something you could do - something tangible we could ask for - but there really isn't at this time. What we DO need from you is your continued positive thoughts, prayers and crossed fingers. Please keep those coming. :)
We probably won't have an update until around the 8th and I promise to write an update then.
Love,
Amy
Scott's major challenge right now is being able to push through the pain. He's amazing - he's been so strong and is trying to do what he can, despite the pain. Things got very complicated in the beginning of the week - he has been getting sick on and off for the past couple weeks, and one time after/during getting sick, he felt a very sharp pain around the site of his pelvic tumor. He literally couldn't move for hours. The Doctor's were afraid he may have fractured his pelvis, but thankfully, an xray showed that wasn't the case. They still aren't sure what happened - it may have been a pinched nerve in the area. The next day or two, he was able to get around with a walker, but his mobility is challenged right now. Today was a better day - only the cane was used for parts of it and he was able to lay down flat for a bit. We think the Fentanyl patches are the culprit for the nausea, so he's looking forward to ending those and, instead, increasing the dosage of Morphine he's taking. (Ok, not looking forward to it, necessarily, but anxious to not be sick anymore!) We know that if he can get past the vomiting and subsequent pain, he will regain some strength to keep battling.
If the pain hasn't started decreasing after this chemo session, he's going to have another MRI before the next chemo session on the 8th. (MRI on the 7th). The Doctor's will see if the chemo is having a positive response on the tumor at that time. If not, they will likely try a different chemo regimen, and there's a very good possibility of starting radiation in conjunction with chemo. Surgery is just not an option in the near future - he's body and counts are not strong enough and he can't stop the chemo for as long as he would need to in order to recover from the surgery. We're reminded that cancer is like many other illnesses - there is sometimes some experimentation with medicine required in order to see what a particular person will respond to. Once they find the chemo drugs that stop the cancer from growing (and radiation to shrink the tumor), then we'll see some progress in the right direction.
You all would be so impressed with him - many people would not be so strong. He tries to laugh and make jokes when he can, and he just pushes through. In discussion with his Doctors last week, they said how surprised they were that he was still working in between treatments. Many people in his shoes would have taken disability, but he's still working. I'm not sure if the mobility challenges will change things, but I pray they won't. Being at work makes him happy and he loves his coworkers - they help keep him strong and positive (and the distraction doesn't hurt).
I also wanted to thank you all for your continued offers of assistance. I truly wish there was something you could do - something tangible we could ask for - but there really isn't at this time. What we DO need from you is your continued positive thoughts, prayers and crossed fingers. Please keep those coming. :)
We probably won't have an update until around the 8th and I promise to write an update then.
Love,
Amy
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Surgery has been postponed....
I wanted to give everyone an update on where things are with my treatment.
We found out that in early January that the tumor is not "dead" like we thought, and it has grown significantly. As many of you know, the pain is almost, if not more painful then when first diagnosed. So they sent me for an MRI and CT Scan. We went to see the Doctors today to figure out what to do next.
Most importantly, the cancer hasn't spread other than the tumor growing. There is a new small spot on my liver that was never there before, but it may not be anything - they will continue to monitor it. The three small spots on my lungs have not grown and they will continue to monitor them, as well. They gave me new meds for the pain (Fentanyl patches supplemented with Percocet) and advised me to start walking with a cane to take pressure off of the area. The pain is from the bone right now, and as you know, bone pain is tremendous.
Chemo started again on Wednesday, January 11. They plan on a total of three (3) chemo cycles (1 every 2 weeks), just like the outpatient sessions I had before. They are going to try every two weeks as long as my body can handle it (it's a pretty aggressive treatment). The main goal right now is to prevent the tumor from growing and to prevent the cancer from metastasizing. In 6 weeks, they'll do more scans and evaluate the next step. It will be either radiation, surgery or possibly more chemo - we won’t know until then. Probably the hardest news is that surgery is going to be much, much harder than anticipated. Unless the tumor shrinks, they are now going to have to take the entire left side of my pelvis, as well as the hip socket (they will use bone grafts and plates in place of those). After surgery, I'll be monitored in ICU for several days, a week in the hospital, and 6 - 8 weeks of rehabilitation. Also, the likelihood of chemo and/or radiation after recovery from surgery is good.
We definitely could have gotten worse news today, so we'll take this the best we can. I’m not giving up.
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