The Plan

We actually met with the oncologist, Dr. Halbur yesterday. He recommends 6 months of chemotherapy. He gave us 3 different chemotherapy options. The first option was to have 2 days of chemo with a pump that administers the drugs 5 FU and Oxaliplatin over 22 hours. This would happen every other week. The 2nd option was to use the same drugs administered every week for 6 weeks with one week break. Th 3rd option was involved with a chemotherapy pill. The Dr. recommended the first option, so we are going with the that option. Ken will need a port in order to follow the first regiment. That will be done by a radiologist in the hospital next week sometime. He will start chemotherapy a week after that (4/9/08). He is dreading this whole process, but he is willing to do what it takes to improve his prognosis. He counted out the months in the doctors office 6 months takes him to September. The doctor is quite optomistic. He said that Ken had a long life a head of him. We are grateful for an optomistic point of view. (I am going to post this. I was hoping that Ken would look at this and see if I got all the information right or add anything that was missing, but that isn't happening so I guess that I will just edit if I need to later on.)

17 out of 17!

It has been a long time since I have updated this. Sorry I guess that I needed a little break. Ken has been doing well ever since he got out of the hospital. It has been hard to keep him from over doing. He was doing so well that we took a little trip to Prescott for the week-end of March 14th-16th. Ken's brother Nathan and his family came. We had rooms next to each other. The cousins had a great time together and it was nice just to have a little down time. It was cold there so we spent most of the time in the room. We had quite a snow storm to travel through on the way home on Sunday morning.

Kayla at Prescott 3/16/08

Monday afternoon 3/17/08 Ken and I went to his surgical appointment. The surgeon said that he was healing well. They removed 33 staples from his incision. (Yes, we counted. I even took pictures but I think that I will spare you that experience.) He reviewed the results of the pathology reports from Ken's surgery which he had alreadeycalled us about on Friday afternoon. He said that 17 out of 17 lymph nodes were cancer free. YEAH! He also said that there was cancer residue that was adjacent to the previous appendix surgery. He said that it was a good thing that Ken had the hemicolectomy or he would have had problems within a year.

We meet with the Oncologist on Wednesday March 26th. He is recommending chemotherapy. We will find out the details of what he recommends and we will make a decision after meeting with him. We are hoping that we will also get a few answer about what to expect in the future.

The Homecoming

3-11-08

Breaking out of the Joint

Ken was released from the hospital yesterday (3/11/08) at 11:00a.m. I am amazed that his stay in the hospital with this surgery was actually a day shorter than the appendectomy in January. He is amazing me. He is about a week further along in his recovery than last time also. He is getting around so well. He can get in and out of our waterbed (old school but we still love it) with out help. He even went to the gym to this morning with me. He walked while I went to a step class. I am a little worried that he might over do and slide backward in his recovery, but he is definitely amazing! I am so proud of all of the hard work that he has done to be healing so quickly. It is nice to have him in the home again and to be able to stay home some more. I even cleaned a badly neglected bathroom today! One left to go.

We received news on the polyp that was removed from his colon during the colonoscopy. The surgeon reported that the "cheesy" polyp he removed was benign as he had expected. I had to chuckle at that. We are still waiting to hear back on the pathology for the lymph nodes. We have a follow up appointment on Monday, March 17th with the surgeon. We will be meeting with the oncologist on March 26th to see where we will go from here.

Hamburger Time

3-10-2008

A Reason.....or 2 or 3 to Celebrate

It seems like reasons to celebrate are a lot more simplistic than before. The last 2 days have included several little reasons to celebrate. I never thought that I could be so thrilled to have my husband's bowels working properly. The family was all present to hear a WHOHOO coming out of the hospital bathroom. It was indeed a moment to celebrate! I also was there when the a new tray was brought for lunch at 1:30p.m. with solid food, a hospital hamburger never looked sooooo good. Ken was pretty excited to eat his burger. Eating and processing solid food properly is the key to getting Ken home. We are hopeful that he can come home this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed. Ken also had his cathater removed yesterday (Monday, March 10th). Yet another reason to celebrate!

Some Good News!

On Wednesday, March 5th, Ken had a colonoscopy. This was done to check for tumors in the left part of the colon that would not be removed in the surgery scheduled for the following day. The procedure went well and the doctor said that he found one small polyp in the part of the intestine that was already scheduled to be removed, but he went ahead and removed it anyway. He said he was not concerned about the polyp.

Early in the morning, on Thursday, March 6th, Ken had an open right hemicolectomy. He went into surgery around 7:40a.m. and was finally moved to his room at about 1:30p.m. It was a long morning for me. Luckily Ken's father came and sat with me during some of that time. That helped to pass the time a little more quickly. Dr. Campbell the surgeon came into the waiting room and said that the surgery went as expected. He said that he didn't find out of the ordinary or unexpected. That was a huge relief. There is a tendecy to find tumors growing in the abdominal cavity. We are very pleased. We are now waiting for the results of the pathology reports on the lymph nodes which should be available either Monday or Tuesday.

Ken is doing pretty well. He has try really hard to do what he needs to do to heal quickly. Thursday, the day of the surgery, he tried to sleep most of the day, but kept being awakened by the oxygen moniter every time he started to fall asleep. (It almost worked like an alarm). His oxygen levels normally fall when he sleeps because he has sleep apnea. He couldn't use his CPAP because of the stomach suction tube that was in his nose. He got very little sleep following the surgery. I asked Ken if he realized how many tubes he had going into his body. He said that it was better not to know. So in secret and as a matter of record, he had 6; a cathater, a drain from the incision, a stomach suction tube, an IV, a tube for oxygen in the nose and a cord to monitor his oxygen level on his finger.
MORE TO COME

The Blender

Life got all crazy and mixed up as we began meeting with doctors. The surgeon, Dr. Kistner and our primary care physician, Dr. Benton were pretty bleak in their description of this cancer and it's prognosis without giving time frames or life expectancies. We were referred to an oncologist nemed Dr. Cavalcant Our first meeting with him was scheduled for Friday, February 8th, but was postponed until Monday, February 11th. We left his office with more questions than answers. He said that this cancer was rare and that chemotherapy or radiation would not be helpful with this type of cancer. He also said that surgery was the only effective method of treating it. He suggested that we consult a major medical oncological center for a second opionion. Then, he told us to come back in 2 months for a check-up. We were so shocked! We just couldn't wait around for 2 months.

We had a second opinion on Friday, February 15th. This doctor said that this cancer is not that rare and that it is just treated it like colon cancer. He recommended surgery and chemotherapy. He recommended that we see a colorectal surgeon. We were very confused by the time we left this doctor's office. Which doctor were we supposed to believe? This was an important decision.

We have spent so much time researching and trying to find out more information. The one common treatment is a right hemicolectomy, (the removal of the right 3rd of the colon along with the blood supply and the lymph nodes).
MORE TO COME...................

Expect the unexpected

Ken had been in Fremont CA for work early on in the month of January. He got home on Wednesday, Jan 16th and was in the hospital by Jan. 23rd with what the Dr. diagnosed as appendicitis. He went into the ER in the morning and came out of surgery at 11:45 p.m. Imagine my surprise when the surgeon explained that Ken would be in the hospital appoximately 7 days because the appendix was so infected he couldn't do the surgery endoscopically.

True to the doctor's word Ken was not released from the hospital until Tuesday, January 29th in the early evening. His time in the hospital went well. He must have a high tolerance for pain because even though he had his appendix removed and a small part of his colon (the cecum) he only took two half doses of Morphene the whole week. We never even filled his prescription for pain when he came home. He was told that he couldn't lift more than 5 pounds for 6 weeks following the surgery. (Do an experiment--5lbs is not very much!) He walked around gingerly for the week after his release, but was back at work on the following Monday February 4th, ready or not.

Slide Show

Ken's brother Nathan, makes recovery more fun.

On Tuesday, February 5th, Ken left work early to go to an appointment with the surgeon to have the remainder of his staples removed. The doctor removed his staples, but asked him to wait so that he could talk to him. This was the first sign that something was not as it seemed. The doctor told Ken that the pathology report showed the appendictis was actually cancer. He was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma of the Appendix. Of course Ken was stunned. We had no idea that there was anything to worry about. Ken's arrival at home with wide eyes and anxiety cued me in that something was not right. He pulled me into our bedroom. Sitting on the edge of our bed he said "I have cancer" My answer "Nuh uh!" And yet a second time the same dialogue. The third time "Jeanine, the doctor said I have cancer." This time I believed, questioned, and cried.