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.

Radiation Update

Going back to the beginning for a minute, the only outward sign that something was wrong with Pete was that he would hiccup after eating, starting just a few months ago. Luckily his dr. in Vegas took this seriously and sent him for the test that would find evidence of cancer. By this point, it's estimated that the cancer had been growing 12-18 months already, an unsettling thought to say the least!

We met with the Radiation department on Tuesday, and Pete's first treatment will be May 4. We meet with the Chemo people next week and assume Chemo will start around that same time. Radiation is basically what you might think it is - a high energy XRay beam focused on the tumor and the surrounding area, which means up and down the esophagus and on the top of the stomach. You lay on a table to receive treatment and don't feel a thing, and they said that treatment from "door to door" is only about 45 minutes. It's still to be determined if he will have once a day treatments for 5 weeks or twice a day treatments for 3 weeks. Regarding side effects, there typically aren't many the first few weeks - it's more of a cumulative effect so they occur more at the end of the treatment cycle. He may have some nausea (they have good meds to control this), some redness in the area, difficulty swallowing, and fatigue.

Pete continues to have a positive attitude about all of this and has been very good about getting in his 3 mile walk everyday. We'll update next week after talking to the Chemo department.

Meeting with the surgeon

We met with Pete's surgeon today at the University of Michigan hospital, and Tanya & I both walked out feeling very optimistic. Pete couldn't be in better hands than those of Dr Mark Orringer who did a fantastic job of educating us about what Pete is facing http://surgery.med.umich.edu/thoracic/clinical/faculty/morrin.shtml . I'll outline the doctor's findings and proposed course of treatment, and Tanya or I can try to answer questions about anything I don't touch on here.

Pete does indeed have a cancerous tumor in his esophagus. There are 3 layers in an esophagus and tumors begin on the inside layer. As the tumor grows it goes through that first layer, through the second and third, and then can break through that last outside, muscular layer. Pete's tumor had grown through all three layers and had just broken through that last layer, making it a T3 tumor.

The good news is that all indications are that the cancer is confined to the one tumor and has not spread to any other organs. There are a few lymph nodes that are suspicious, but not obviously cancerous which puts the cancer classification at Stage 2A. If they were to find cancer in any lymph nodes it would become Stage 3.

Pete's treatment will start in the next couple of weeks and will progress as follows: 1) 4-5 weeks of simultaneous chemotherapy and radiation; 2) 3 weeks of rest; 3) surgery/recovery; and 4) possibly 1-2 more courses of chemo and radiation. The surgery for this type of cancer used to be very difficult with a high mortality rate (and many hospitals still perform this "old fashioned" surgery), but Dr Orringer is an expert at T.H.E. (transhiatel esophagectomy) surgery which he said has a survival rate the same as basic gall bladder surgery and has 98% of patients home after one week. Here's a link about the surgery http://www.med.umich.edu/michigandifference/victor/orringer.htm .

The bottom line here is that Pete has a very rough 5-6 months ahead of him, but after that time he should be cured and better than ever! Dr Orringer was adamant that he must prepare for what is ahead of him by doing breathing exercises and walking 3 miles EVERY DAY, even during chemo & radiation, so when you talk to him make sure to ask if he's following doctor's orders! (he'll love me for that!)

Thanks for your continued concern, and I'll post another update after he meets with Oncology to get prepped for chemo and radiation.

First post

This blog has been created to update family and friends on Peter Colbert's health and subsequent treatments. Since returning to Michigan for treatment of esophagus cancer Pete has gone through numerous tests to determine the extent of his illness. Tomorrow we meet with his surgeon to fully understand his illness and to determine a course of treatment. We will update this blog with details as we get them.

Thank you for keeping Pete and his family in your thoughts and prayers.