skippyhawk

Today I had the port installed and now have a “fanny pack” that I wear all the time that has a weeks worth of chemo.  Sue and I had to be at the Hospital at 7:00 for the procedure.  Wow, there sure are a lot of people on the road at that time of the day.  Wonder where they were all going.  Anyway…………….

I have to go in weekly to get a refill of the chemo.  Plan is 3 weeks on chemo and one off.  We will do this twice and then get another CT to see how much effect the new drug is having on the tumors.  Off weeks will be March 20 and April 17.   I also will get a shot every two weeks to help in red blood cell production.  The shot and the fact I am getting a constant, but slower dose of chemo should help considerably in how I feel.  Lets hope so, and hope that this drug does some good.

 All of your concerns and well wishes are greatly appreciated.  I have said this before, but it makes the entire process much more tollerable.  Thanks to all of you……

Bob

Just playing around to see if I can add a picture. Getting a tutorial from Kelly. We have also changed the set up to only show the last 5 posts and comments.  Previous posts and comments are to the right under archives.
Sue

OK, “Plan A” didn’t work so well.  Just got back from having my third CT scan in less than two months. 

The CT today showed both growth of the tumors I had as well as more tumors in my liver.  Not a big increase in the amount or size of the ones in my pancreas.  The Dr. was not pleased with the progress of the chemo drug we were using especially with the side effects I am having so here is what we are going to do…….

I am going to have a “port” installed in my upper chest  next Tuesday at 9:00am that will be used for the new chemo drug, fluorouracil.  After having this done, out-patient surgery, I will then get a “fanny pack” pump that I will wear all the time and it will administer the chemo 24/7.  I will get a refill of the drug once a week in the Dr.s office which should only take about 10 minutes to fill my sac.  Three weeks on of 24/7 chemo and one week off. 

So that is where we are now.  Not much luck with the other treatment.  Maybe better luck with this one.  The good news is that I am back to about 90% of how I felt before the chemo started so it is back to work tomorrow.  Sue is going to go with me so wish us luck.

Thanks  again for all of your support.

b

Just a quick post.  I have a CT schedueled for Wednesday at 1:30p and Dr. appointment and chemo Friday at 9:00a.  Don’t know if I will find out results of CT until Dr. appointment.  Sue or I will post results when we get them.

b

Well this is the week that Bob doesn’t have chemo, so its suppose to be a “good” week. We saw the doctor yesterday and basically just tried to set up appointments for the CT and doctor follow up and blood tests. I say tried because the computers were down all day at St. Luke’s radiology department, hard to believe but true! Bob will call on Monday to schedue an appointment and then we really start Round 3. Obvoiusly we are very anxious to see if the chemo worked and what the next course of action will be. More on that later. . .

On a very sad note, our friend Hank Hopfinger died this morning. I’m not exactly sure of Hanks age but I would put him at 60 or 61 since he went to school with my brother Rick. Hank had been battling pulminary fibrosis for 4 years and unfortunately he lost the fight. After Bob was diagnosed he talked to Hank and Mary Beth. They were two people who we could identify with. Mary Beth has also commented on this blog several times. Bob and I were going to stop by and see them, but we didn’t. I guess we thought we had lots of time. How I wish we had made the time. Our love and prayers go out to all of Hank’s family and especially to Mary Beth and her sons.