This past week, Dan hasn't been on very much pain killers, and he has felt it. It's been another painful week, and he keeps thinking that he should feel better the next and then is dissapointed. This is definately a long haul kind of recovery. I tell him he should think about it in terms of weeks, like next week will be better than the one before. He told me I didn't need to get him a refill on his pain killers, but the Tylenol and Mortrin were not helping. It is still just his insides that hurt when he eats food. Sleeping is still difficult at night with nightmares or trouble getting comfortable. His appetite is coming back slowly and he is eating a little more.
DR. APPOINTMENT (Friday)
At Dan's post surgery appointment we found out that Dan's incision is healing well, and his stomach felt normal to the doctor. The doctor told him to call if the pain gets any worse, but that he needs to give it more time for the pain to subside. We got a refill on his prescription to help with the pain and it is working better! The doctor explained to us the pathology report:
1. 14 Lymph nodes were positive with Teratoma Cancer ( we thought from the CT Scan there were about 5) Almost all of the lymph nodes were this kind of cancer that would not have responded to chemotherapy and so we, and the doctor, are very glad we went with the surgery! If we had started with Chemotherapy, he would have had to have the surgery afterward also, guaranteed. It is a possibility that Dan will not have anymore treatments!!! If the Teratoma Cancer comes back ever, Dan will have more surgery to remove it.
2. There was a minute amount of cancer that is a seminoma, which means it could respond to chemotherapy, and that was the reason his tumor markers were elevated. The doctors are not too concerned by this because it was such a small amount. If the tumor markers stay low at a 1-2 or less, they will not need to do anymore treatments. If however, the numbers go up again, it means there are some left in his body, and it's spreading, and Dan will have to do 3 cycles of Chemotherapy. They drew more blood for labs at the appointment, and we should know the results on Monday-ish. If they are the same or lower, we will begin to feel like Dan is on surveillance and can rest from being treated!! We look forward to moving on with life, and thinking about our future.
3. The doctors will watch Dan closely for the next year by drawing blood every 1-2 months and performing a CT scan every 3-4 months, that way, they can catch anything early if something changes. Dan has another follow up appointment in one month from now, in Utah, to check the surgery site and tumor markers again. And then a CT Scan in about 3 months from now.
So that was all pretty good news, we had been hoping that all the cancer was Teratoma, and almost all of it was, and we were glad that his tumor markers went down to 1 after the surgery! We will post more after Monday when we hear back what the tumor markers are now.
And thank you so much, for all the people that have helped us get ready for our trip to Utah, and helped us while in Utah! We are home now, and Dan is happy to start getting back to normal life. If he can manage without the oxycodone medicine, he would like to try to go in to work for several hours next week. He cannot drive while one that medicine though, but I know he is very determined.
Rachelle
No comments:
Post a Comment