Well, not much has changed. We met with my oncology team yesterday at the Huntsman Cancer Institute and discussed the CT and MRI studies done last week. Essentially, the cancer continues to spread or grow. We knew that.
As reported last time, new lesions have been identified in my lower spine and a new one in my cervical spine was identified in this last study. The good news is that these all appear to have responded to the chemotherapy.
The majority of lesions in my lungs seemed to have responded to the chemotherapy quite well as they have either disappeared or shrunk significantly. However, there are 5 lesions that have not and actually appear to be increasing in size. You can see several of these on the CT images of my chest that I posted several weeks ago. It is these lesions that the sarcoma team wants to get rid of. I am scheduled to see a surgeon on the 4th of February.
Chemotherapy has been suspended for now due to my blood being so messed up (see last post). After I recover from surgery, I will be reevaluated and it will be determined at that time if I will resume chemotherapy and what kind.
In the mean time, there isn't much we can do about anything. Patti is quite stressed and the oncologist even commented about how stressed she seemed to be. As we were checking out and scheduling another chest CT for the 4th, she came up to Patti, put her arm around her and told her that for now, there is nothing more we can do until after the surgery. She then said that we should get out of town and forget about it all for as long as we can. That might be fun.
We have had horrible inversions here with severe smog/fog socking us in and very little direct sunlight or clear skies and terribly cold temperatures. Warm and sunny southern California might be just was we need for a couple of days.
Gods blessings to you all!
Jim
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Quick Update
Here is a quick update. I got a call this morning from my oncologist's nurse informing me that the oncologist has decided to suspend chemotherapy for now. Each time I have undergone this "new" chemo, my blood has suffered some. My white count drops significantly - thus, I've been getting that Neulasta injection that I described some months ago to try to keep the white count up. Additionally, my platelets have dropped significantly. Platelets are the part of your blood that form clots to keep you from bleeding to death when you get cut.
Back in November when I was hospitalized for infection of my central line, my platelets had dropped to 26,000. A normal person's platelets are supposed to be above 240,000. At that time, I required a transfusion of platelets just so they could pull out the infected central line without fear of me bleeding to death then.
Every time I go for a chemotherapy session, my blood is checked and it usually gets above 100,000 or so allowing me to proceed with the treatments. They prefer it to be above 120,000, but the last couple of times, it has been just above the 100,000 mark. This past Friday, my platelets were only about 58,000 or so.
The Sarcoma Team meets every Monday morning to discuss active cases and they decided that suspension of the chemo was in my best interest for now. I was told to see the cardiothoracic surgeon as soon as possible (my appointment for that is February 4th) to discuss surgery to remove the larger lesions from my lungs.
So, that is about it. We are waiting to see the surgeon on the 4th. I have to admit that I am not disappointed about the suspension of chemotherapy. I am just starting to feel semi-normal after the last round three weeks ago. I was not looking forward to the sickness that comes with each treatment.
On another topic, the topic of faith, I am so thankful for everyone's encouragement and prayers. I am thrilled and deeply humbled to be included in prayers of so many. I received a wonderful e-mail today from a physician colleague of mine that I haven't seen for a year or so informing me that I had been included in his prayers since he had learned of my cancer. What a wonderful blessing it is to be included. I am so appreciative.
A wonderful cousin of mine sent me another wonderfully inspiring message that I'd like to share with you as well. Here is a link that you will have to copy and paste into your browser to connect to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2AibapAJfE
It is amazing and really exemplifies my feelings about my faith and trust in Christ. Please enjoy.
Jim & Patti Meeks
Back in November when I was hospitalized for infection of my central line, my platelets had dropped to 26,000. A normal person's platelets are supposed to be above 240,000. At that time, I required a transfusion of platelets just so they could pull out the infected central line without fear of me bleeding to death then.
Every time I go for a chemotherapy session, my blood is checked and it usually gets above 100,000 or so allowing me to proceed with the treatments. They prefer it to be above 120,000, but the last couple of times, it has been just above the 100,000 mark. This past Friday, my platelets were only about 58,000 or so.
The Sarcoma Team meets every Monday morning to discuss active cases and they decided that suspension of the chemo was in my best interest for now. I was told to see the cardiothoracic surgeon as soon as possible (my appointment for that is February 4th) to discuss surgery to remove the larger lesions from my lungs.
So, that is about it. We are waiting to see the surgeon on the 4th. I have to admit that I am not disappointed about the suspension of chemotherapy. I am just starting to feel semi-normal after the last round three weeks ago. I was not looking forward to the sickness that comes with each treatment.
On another topic, the topic of faith, I am so thankful for everyone's encouragement and prayers. I am thrilled and deeply humbled to be included in prayers of so many. I received a wonderful e-mail today from a physician colleague of mine that I haven't seen for a year or so informing me that I had been included in his prayers since he had learned of my cancer. What a wonderful blessing it is to be included. I am so appreciative.
A wonderful cousin of mine sent me another wonderfully inspiring message that I'd like to share with you as well. Here is a link that you will have to copy and paste into your browser to connect to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2AibapAJfE
It is amazing and really exemplifies my feelings about my faith and trust in Christ. Please enjoy.
Jim & Patti Meeks
Friday, January 9, 2009
Happy New Year!
It has been nearly a month (but not quite) since I last posted anything here on this blog. Sorry for those looking for updates more frequently. I apologize.
One week ago today, I finished my most recent round of chemo and it has really taken a long time to recover from it. Every round seems to take more out of me. I am scheduled for the next round on the 21st of this month. As you can imagine, I am really looking forward to it.
The next round will be the 10th chemotherapy treatment to date. I had two last Spring which were largely ineffective and then after the excision surgery in July, I have had 7 more to date with the 8th coming the week after next. As of now, this is the last chemo treatment that is planned. I guess that I shouldn't complain. The last time I was at the infusion center, there was a gentleman there for his 63rd chemo treatment.
In the mean time, another CT scan of the chest was done on 12/22/08 for comparison to the images done on 11/14/08. In my last post here, I provided some images from September and November for comparison. Today, you will find images from November and December for comparison. They are at the bottom of today's posting. The image on the right is the November image and the one on the left will be the December image.
Basically, we continue to see improvement in the size of lesions and no new lesions have developed anywhere in the lungs. An MRI was also done of my arm pit and there is no evidence of any cancer there. In the lungs, there are a couple of larger lesions that have either remained stable in size (didn't shrink) or have actually enlarged slightly over time. The plan for these is to have them surgically removed sometime in February or March. We are scheduled to meet with a cardiothorasic surgeon on the 4th of February to discuss the surgery.
Within the past month to 5 weeks, I have noticed some new symptoms. At first it was quite subtle and so I didn't pay much attention to it but with time, the symptoms became more pronounced and predictable. What I found was that I was having the sensation of a mild electrical shock that would shoot down the back of both of my legs all the way to the soles of my feet. At first, I couldn't put my finger on it, but as it became more noticeable and more frequent, I realized that it was happening when I looked down with my head. You know, like to look at my watch or a plate of food or something. So now that I have that figured out, I can just look down any time and zing, there it goes. The more abrupt I move my head, the more pronounced the symptoms.
I discussed this with the medical team at the Huntsman. I have a long history of low back pain and problems with discs and scoliosis and such, so an MRI of my lumbar spine was done. This revealed that there are a number of lesions in the spine. Remember that I had one in my mid back previously that was treated with radiation - it has been stable since then. These are all new and so an MRI of my cervical spine (neck) is scheduled for next week as well. Here is the text of the MRI report related to this new finding; "Numerous enhancing well circumscribed lesions in L1, L2, L3 and L5 vertebral bodies. Partially visualized, there is a lesion in the left ilium. These lesions are worrisome for metastatic disease in a patient with history of sarcoma."
In layman's terms, this means that there is probable spread of the cancer to the lower spine and possibly to the pelvis (ilium). After reviewing the images, the Sarcoma Team feels that the lesions are not active and have responded to the chemo so far. The scan of my cervical spine will check for spread there. At some point, another PET scan will be done to see what the overall picture is. Remember, previous PET scans were done to determine the extent of cancer spread. That is where the lung lesions and spinal lesion were first identified.
It still hasn't explained the electrical zing and so that will be worked up as we go along. Anywhere along the spine can have a lesion and it even may be due to the radiation therapy on the T8 lesion last Spring.
So, here are the latest images (on the left) of my lungs with comparisons to the ones from November on the right. If you click on each image, it should enlarge for better detail. Enjoy.
God bless you all!
Jim
One week ago today, I finished my most recent round of chemo and it has really taken a long time to recover from it. Every round seems to take more out of me. I am scheduled for the next round on the 21st of this month. As you can imagine, I am really looking forward to it.
The next round will be the 10th chemotherapy treatment to date. I had two last Spring which were largely ineffective and then after the excision surgery in July, I have had 7 more to date with the 8th coming the week after next. As of now, this is the last chemo treatment that is planned. I guess that I shouldn't complain. The last time I was at the infusion center, there was a gentleman there for his 63rd chemo treatment.
In the mean time, another CT scan of the chest was done on 12/22/08 for comparison to the images done on 11/14/08. In my last post here, I provided some images from September and November for comparison. Today, you will find images from November and December for comparison. They are at the bottom of today's posting. The image on the right is the November image and the one on the left will be the December image.
Basically, we continue to see improvement in the size of lesions and no new lesions have developed anywhere in the lungs. An MRI was also done of my arm pit and there is no evidence of any cancer there. In the lungs, there are a couple of larger lesions that have either remained stable in size (didn't shrink) or have actually enlarged slightly over time. The plan for these is to have them surgically removed sometime in February or March. We are scheduled to meet with a cardiothorasic surgeon on the 4th of February to discuss the surgery.
Within the past month to 5 weeks, I have noticed some new symptoms. At first it was quite subtle and so I didn't pay much attention to it but with time, the symptoms became more pronounced and predictable. What I found was that I was having the sensation of a mild electrical shock that would shoot down the back of both of my legs all the way to the soles of my feet. At first, I couldn't put my finger on it, but as it became more noticeable and more frequent, I realized that it was happening when I looked down with my head. You know, like to look at my watch or a plate of food or something. So now that I have that figured out, I can just look down any time and zing, there it goes. The more abrupt I move my head, the more pronounced the symptoms.
I discussed this with the medical team at the Huntsman. I have a long history of low back pain and problems with discs and scoliosis and such, so an MRI of my lumbar spine was done. This revealed that there are a number of lesions in the spine. Remember that I had one in my mid back previously that was treated with radiation - it has been stable since then. These are all new and so an MRI of my cervical spine (neck) is scheduled for next week as well. Here is the text of the MRI report related to this new finding; "Numerous enhancing well circumscribed lesions in L1, L2, L3 and L5 vertebral bodies. Partially visualized, there is a lesion in the left ilium. These lesions are worrisome for metastatic disease in a patient with history of sarcoma."
In layman's terms, this means that there is probable spread of the cancer to the lower spine and possibly to the pelvis (ilium). After reviewing the images, the Sarcoma Team feels that the lesions are not active and have responded to the chemo so far. The scan of my cervical spine will check for spread there. At some point, another PET scan will be done to see what the overall picture is. Remember, previous PET scans were done to determine the extent of cancer spread. That is where the lung lesions and spinal lesion were first identified.
It still hasn't explained the electrical zing and so that will be worked up as we go along. Anywhere along the spine can have a lesion and it even may be due to the radiation therapy on the T8 lesion last Spring.
So, here are the latest images (on the left) of my lungs with comparisons to the ones from November on the right. If you click on each image, it should enlarge for better detail. Enjoy.
God bless you all!
Jim
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