Out of the Hospital!

Pete is leaving the hospital today after nearly two weeks recovering from his surgery. He is definitely still recovering, and he's contending with an irregular heartbeat, but making slow steady progress. Thanks for your continued support!

Successful Surgery!!

Pete was in the operating room all day yesterday, and the doctor successfully performed the surgery. He told us after that radiation had nearly cleared the tumor already, and nothing unusual came up, so we had the best-case scenario!

Surgery Date Approaches

Pete has been feeling better little by little since the last post. He's able to eat regularly most days; his white blood cell count is back to normal; and he's been able to get back to walking 3 miles a day to prepare for the surgery. His chemotherapy doctor has cleared him for surgery. A recent CAT scan was a bit inconclusive as to whether or not the radiation shrunk the tumor because the tissues in the area were still inflamed, but it definitely showed that cancer had not spread anywhere else in his body.

Pete & Leigh met with the surgeon today and he confirmed the date of the surgery to be July 9, so please keep Pete in your thoughts that day. It is a 4-5 hour procedure and he will be in the hospital a minimum of 7 days.

Continuing Side Effects

Pete ended up in the hospital again for a few days last week, unable to keep food down. The radiation has made his esophagus sore and irritated and he required a feeding tube for a few days. This problem still persists, but is getting incrementally better. Also, his white blood cell count is way down because of the chemo, another common side effect. This will get better with time, but unfortunately right now it means his immunity is way down and he needs to avoid crowds and "germy" situations. He has been disappointed to miss out on some of the grandkids' events, but it's all in this big effort to get clear of cancer.

Some Complications

We spoke a little too soon on how well Pete has managed his treatments. The cumulative effects of the radiation and especially the chemotherapy have taken quite a toll since my last post. Pete's about to spend his third night at U of M hospital where they are managing the side effects of his treatment: dehydration, anemia, shaky hands, weight loss, and an overall cruddy feeling. All of this is uncomfortable and tedious for Pete, but also typical in cancer patients and totally treatable. He should be released tomorrow, Wednesday.

Pete had one more chemotherapy session planned, but the doctors have decided against it due to the current side effects and the fact that they've gotten a good treatment course in already. He will have a CAT scan in a couple of weeks to see how much the chemo and radiation shrunk the tumor. We thought that the surgery to remove the tumor would be in June sometime, but it will now be in July. Thanks for reading.

Last Day of Radiation!

Today is Pete's last day of radiation, after 3 weeks of treatment. Chemotherapy ends this Tuesday. Pete has withstood treatments as well as can be expected - he's been fatigued and nauseous, but managed that pretty well. As is fairly typical, he's having soreness and a tightening in his esophagus from the radiation, but they are working to make that more comfortable. Now he gets a "break" so to speak, from treatments, but not from doctors. He'll be meeting with his surgeon and other doctors over the next few weeks, and we had originally been told that surgery would be about 3 weeks after radiation and chemo, which would be mid-June sometime. All in all, Pete's doing good and keeping a good attitude.

Pete would like to sincerely thank everyone for the wonderful cards and calls of encouragement - it has meant so much to him and really helped him through this time!

Finally some positive news!

On Monday Pete had a suspicious lymph node in his chest biopsied. They had to wait until this morning (Thurs) for results, knowing that the surgeon finds 75-80% of these biopsies turn out to be cancerous. Thankfully Pete's results were NEGATIVE for cancer! This means when he starts radiation on Monday the power and area of the radiation will only have to be half as much as it would if cancer would have spread to lymph nodes. Chemotherapy will begin on Tuesday. We are all thankful that Pete's cancer still appears to be very treatable and curable. Thanks for your continued support.