Wound update

Jeff's wound has developed an odor and the fluid draining is changing. It looks a little more like mucus. The hospice nurse thinks it shows signs of infection. She took a culture of it yesterday and I will update when I hear the results. That is all for now. Everyone take care!!!

-A

Updates with some light

First of all the hunt for trials and possible alternatives is still on going. Thought there might be a trial in New York at Roswell Cancer Institute, but then I talked to the doctor and found out that wasn't a possibility. They might have another one he might qualify for, but I have to call the Dr. in charge of that trial, which I plan to do this next week. Also I am just going down a list calling cancer centers all around the United States. There are no trials in Kansas that Jeff qualifies for from what I can tell.
We did get some hopeful information from an abdominal/pelvic CT Jeff had done last week. There is a node next to the lower part of his esophagus that has increased in size from 7mm to 11mm since his last scan in March. There is "slight" enlargement of an anterior node near the diaphragm. The nodes in the peritoneal and omental (abdominal area) has shown "generalized increase in size", but no "dominant soft tissue mass is identified." The fluid collection in his abdomen area has decreased in size from 10 x 8cm to 8.2 x 5.4cm. GREAT NEWS!!! His right kidney is still slightly enlarged, but liver, kidney, lungs and other organs appear clear from the abdominal CT scan.
Pelvis CT:
Some fluid is starting to infiltrate the tissue of his abdominal wall, but this is believed to be oedema or cellulitis. This fluid has increased, but the results do not say how much. The mass by the right ureter has increased slightly from 2.7 x 2cm to 3.6 x 2.3cm. The lower iliac chain and bilateral inguinal nodes are "again identified." It goes on to state that these are stable to slightly increased.
We take this one as a good one. All of his organs appear clear!!! Four months with no treatment and his organs are still clear!!!! Can you believe it??? Thanks for all the prayers and positive energy
Ibuprofen has been helping with his pain and he has not taken any short term liquid pain medicine for sometime. Just so everyone who participated in the fundraiser knows; some of the money went to go help buy a new bed. This has helped tremendously with Jeff being able to sleep and keep the swelling down in his legs since it has a memory foam in it. We just wanted to say thanks to all the kind hearts out there. I have started back to work full-time, but I am working from our local office. It is nice to know that I can run home if Jeff needs me. Also his wound is draining a lot, which we both think is a good sign.
Hope everyone is well & take care.
I almost forgot there was another article done on Jeff. This one was in the University Daily Kansan (my former learning platelet). Just want to say thanks Malcolm!

Updates

Jeff's pain has returned. It has been a roller coaster. Monday was horrible. He was in pain all day and we couldn't seem to get on top of it. Then the next day he was doing better. He has been sleeping for 2-3 hours at time now. He was supposed to have his abdominal fluid drained on Monday, but we had to reschedule because he could not make the trip across town to the hospital. We have a new hospice nurse now. Her name is Tammy.
She told us that Jeff's oncologist is reluctant to reschedule the procedure with Jeff's pain being so erratic and the small likelihood that it would provide him any pain relief. He is developing more soars on his legs that are oozing fluid. Tammy said that once the fluid is in the tissue and the lymph node system is not draining then these ulcers will happen. We just have to make sure that they don't get infected.
We were barking up another tree for possible trials. We had medical records sent to the Mayo Clinic. They said Jeff could repeat a previous chemo he was on and the only difference is that they adjust the dosage according to genotype not body size. Since Jeff is on blood thinning medication they said that excluded him from the other trial that they could offer him. We were told that they would keep his information on file should anything else open up in the fall.
I have a call into M.D. Anderson to see what, if anything, he might be eligible for down there since he is already considered a patient there.
We have not heard anything back on the stool sample, but we figure no news is good news and he seems to be doing fine.
One last thing.. They have taken him off of all of his antibiotics. I think that is all now. Hope everyone is well and take care.

-A