Cancer update - 10/20

I had the last part of my octreatide scan today and my first meeting with the medical oncologist. The scans took a long time but were not a big deal.

The doctor wants to run some more tests against the biopsy samples. A lot of what he said was medical gobbledygook that I didn't fully follow, but essentially. he wants to run what he called a "c-kit" test to determine if the type of neuroendocrine tumors I have may be either something called GIST (which I looked up and it stands for Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor) which is treatable and to eliminate myeloid leukemia as a possibility. Since my white counts have all been normal, I don't see how the latter could be possible. He wants to run some special blood tests that tests for certain "exons". He said an exon is a section of a gene. Since cancer is a cell mutation, if certain exons are the mutated ones, that indicates GIST. He also wants me to have an upper endoscopy done to check for GIST.

Cancer update - 10/16

Well I finally got an appointment with the medical oncologist scheduled for Tuesday, October 20 at 9:00 a.m. in Gainesville.

Cancer update - 10/5

My dad and I went to see the gastroenterology oncologist today. He says that since neuroendocrine tumors are metastatic by nature, our first course of action is to identify the primary source. This is usually the last part of the small intestine, but it can be elsewhere in the GI tract or on the lungs. I need to have an octreatide scan to help identify this. He says in some cases, the primary source is never identified, but that generally in those cases, chemotherapy would affect the primary source. If the octreatide scan reveals nothing, then a colonoscopy will be ordered. I had one back in January 2008 that showed nothing, but he said something could have come up since then. I've had some colon issues recently so that he said that he may elect to do the colonoscopy anyway even if the octreatide scan shows up something. He's not sure.

Health update - Cancer

I got the call from the orthopedic oncologist today. The results are not good. The results came back as neuroendocrine tumors which are malignant. The doctor let me know that this type of cancer is very rare and is outside of his area of expertise, so he was not able to give me too much information.

Cindy's sketch: Cassie and me at the altar

Cindy doesn't want me to share this picture with you because she thinks it looks silly, but it really touched me deeply. It was a quick sketch but I love what it conveys and I wanted to share it with everyone.

This morning during praise and worship, my 10-year-old daughter Cassie went up to the altar to pray by herself. She sometimes goes up to the altar when I do to pray over others and sometimes to pray with me, but she's never gone up by herself to pray before.

Health update - 9/9

I heard back from the orthopedic oncology nurse today finally on my bone scan. The results are “very encouraging”. She says that the doctors have conferred with the radiologist and they agree that there is little to no uptake on the scans, pointing towards the lesions being part of a benign process! Praise the Lord!

Health update

Well, we're finally home after over 12 hours away in Gainesville! This has not been a red letter day for us, mainly because of Baptist South's negligence and my first oncologist's unprofessionalism. Unrelenting rain didn't help any either. It literally rained the entire time we were there. Cindy slipped on the wet pavement and hurt her ankle and her knee which was already hurting. Pray for her. We were definitely very glad to get out of there today.

Initial biopsy update - NOT!

Well, after the five-hour ordeal yesterday, I got a call from the oncologist today that the results are inconclusive. He said they should have talked to me yesterday, but evidently they had to use a hammer to try to extract bone tissue and were not successful. They evidently thought they had a sufficient sample but didn't. They commented to the oncologist that I had some of the hardest bones they had ever seen. I have all the luck!

First Biopsy Update

Well I made it through the biopsy just fine. I got there before 8:30 and ended up not going back until after 10. Hospitals! The biopsy took about 50 minutes and they had to give me three doses of sedation. I wasn't completely knocked out. It was supposed to be "twilight", but it took that much to get me into the twilight. I slept for a few hours afterward and was discharged at around 1:30.

Initial report

I want to fill everyone in on the latest. I think I'm far enough along in the process to share more details with you on what's going on with me.

Six or seven weeks ago, I began to get an acute pain in my right hip and pelvic area. I put off going to the doctor about it for a few weeks thinking it would go away but it didn't, so I finally broke down and went to my primary. He ordered a pelvic CT scan to identify the source of the pain. I wasn't prepared for what happened next.

I got a call from my primary the same day saying that the radiology report came back saying that appeared to be metastatic bone cancer of the pelvis extending from my right hip around my lumbar back to my left hip. He said we didn't know for sure but if it was cancer that we needed to jump on things quickly. This all happened last Thursday (8/6) afternoon, so we were terrified to say the least, but trusting God that He would see us through this. He is the Healer!

My primary ordered some special blood tests which came back negative for any cancer tags, so he said he wasn't sure what it was. It could be cancer or something called Paget's Disease, or some type of infection. He wasn't sure, so he referred me to an oncologist.

I went to see the oncologist on Monday who scheduled me for a full neck and abdominal CT scan yesterday. I just got a call this morning that he has reviewed the scan and sees NOTHING ANYWHERE ELSE except in the bone! Yes! This means nothing has metastasized from anywhere else which is 99% of the time where bone cancer comes from. Between that and the negative blood tests, the oncologist is stumped.

At this point he has ordered a biopsy to find out exactly what we're dealing with on the bone. I will be getting an appointment for that sometime today.

We're breathing a little easier this morning. God has seen us this far and will see us through. God is the Great Physician and can do far greater than any doctor. No matter what the report, we hold fast to the promises of God and trust in Him as my Healer. We will believe the Lord's report!