Still SLOW Going!

Again two weeks have past since my last blog entry, and again, it is primarily because David's progress is slow, so it can best be measured in weeks versus days.  With the exception of his bowel function, David has essentially recovered from surgery.  His ongoing issue continues to be a fast intestinal transit time secondary to the nerves that supply the gastrointestinal tract being disrupted during surgery.  So, to combat this problem, David takes an adult dose of Imodium (initially he tried a pediatric dose, but that proved not to be enough) an hour before breakfast, lunch, & dinner.  Even with this, every meal is a stressful experience because it involves worrying whether it is going to stick with him & if it does stick with him, it involves a great deal of cramping & gas.  David has worked very hard to increase his caloric intake to about 2,000 per day (not easy to do when the foods he is able to tolerate are not very caloric!) & his fluid intake to about 2 liters per day.  To accomplish this he is now eating three meals & two snacks every day.  He has been able to get his weight up to 182#.  Because of these improvements, we have been able to decrease the volume of his IV nutrition by half, which allows it to be administered in 10 hours over night instead of 12 hours.  Once David reached the six week post-surgery date (the day after Christmas) & he no longer had precautions that he had to follow, we began some daily exercise.  He is now able to tolerate 10 to 12 intervals of jogging for one minute & walking for four minutes, hill walks, light weight arm strengthening exercises, & some core work.  On his most recent blood work, most of his parameters were within the normal range (still slightly anemic) & his cancer marker was below normal ... how awesome is that!!

On Monday, David will have recheck abdominal & thoracic CT studies, which will serve as his new baselines as we go forward.  On Tuesday, we have appointments with Dr. Fanta (the oncologist) & Dr. Lowy (the surgeon).  We are hoping that they will feel that David is doing well enough that we can discontinue the IV nutrition completely & if that is the case, that the central IV line we are using to administer the IV nutrition can be taken out (not only is it a bit of a nuisance, it is a potential source for infection).  We are also hoping that the doctors will feel that David is ready to begin the next phase of treatment, which is six months of chemotherapy with Gemcitabine (Gemzar).    

Sure hope that your holidays were wonderful & that 2014 will provide you with many laughs, few tears, & lots of love!!  Janet