May 03, 2011
To my Friends and Family,
I hope this finds you and yours well.
Time sure passes by doesn’t it? Seems I just wrote the other day. Anyway, here’s some of the latest info in a long line of my continuing battle against Thymic Carcinoma cancer.
As many of you know, today was my follow up Oncology Doctor’s appointment since my last visit on April 5th that ended with me getting a transfusion of two units of blood. Today’s 8 am appointment included a physical once over, blood work, lots of questions and my visit ended at about 1:30 pm with a CT-scan. I didn’t have the usual contrast dye for this CT-scan because my blood test revealed that my creatine (kidney/liver function) number was low enough to exclude the isotope dye.
When I got home I laid down for a nap and fell right to sleep. I slept soundly until my Oncology Doctor called with the preliminary CT-scan results. Here goes; after comparing my January CT-scan with today’s my Doctor and the Radiologist agreed, my largest tumors in both lungs have increased in size. I also have several new tumors in all lobes of both of my lungs. They vary in size but the largest of the tumors are the same tumors that we have been watching since the CT-scan that led the Surgeon to set the surgery tentative date of October 07 of last year. As a reminder, that’s when the Tumor Board at Boston VA Hospital determined them inoperable and my second regime of chemo started. Time flies even when you’re not having fun. Lol
My Doctor also stated that he would call me on Friday with a more conclusive report. That works good for me because it gives me time to get my head wrapped around what this means as well as time to prepare questions that Sue and I might have. It’s kind of funny really, but no mater how well I prepare the questions I plan to ask my Doctor, I seem to forget or skip over many of them. Maybe because as I’m told medical info, and test results that bring about new questions at such a rapid pace I just plain forget the questions I had. lol Yupper, I do write them down.
So, I guess, I’m safe to report, the sum total of what I now know has reached a new and amazing level of insufficient once again. I lack any information that reveals the plan of medical action from this point forward, but hope that Friday will put things in perspective for me. Will pass it on when I get it.
Sincerely
Sam/chappy