CAT scan results

I know I've been procrastinating on updating the blog but I can't believe it has been since Sept. 1 that I last posted. Here are the developments since my last post.

I have two doctors one at Akron City Hospital and one at the Cleveland Clinic. I have been using the doctor at the Cleveland Clinic as my "second opinion" doctor and the Akron doctor as my primary oncology doctor. I mainly used the Akron doctor because I wanted to have my chemo treatments closer to home. As of my last post I was to have 8 rounds of chemo. I had an appointment with my Cleveland Clinic doctor to review my latest CAT/PET scan. He told me that where was no evidence that 8 rounds of chemo are more effective that 6 rounds of chemo and he would recommend I only have 6 rounds. Now you would think I would be happy with the news that I would get to skip the last 2 treatments, but now I was in the position to choose with all my vast medical knowledge (sarcasm intended) which was the best option. I decided to only have 6 treatments and my last treatment was on Sept 10th.

During treatments one of the things I held onto was how great I was going to feel after the treatment was finished. Thoughts of exercising again, wrestling with the kids and playing golf. I feel much better than I did during treatment but not close to feeling good. I still have sharp almost constant pain in my stomach. My muscles hurt and I still feel light headed. The chemo has also messed with my vision. My vision should return to normal after 6 months the doctor said. I have been feeling so bad that I was sure the chemo didn't work. I made an appoint to have my CAT scan early and on Dec 2nd I had my CAT scan at 2:30 and an appoint with my doctor at 4:00 that same day.

The rest of this is taken from my wife's email because I'm lazy and she writes better than I do.

The scan showed Bob's chest clear of lymphoma. The tumor in his abdomen (wrapped around his ureter) is still visible but Dr. (Cleveland Clinic) believes it is smaller. He said there is no longer blockage to the kidney. That kidney is noticeably smaller than the other and the doctor said that is probably because of the earlier damage from the blockage. He didn't discuss recovery for the kidney, etc.--didn't seem concerned about it. In looking at the scan, the doctor noted that the inner part of the tumor is darker than the outer ring--possibly suggesting the tissue is necrotic (dead). He said the presence of the tumor could also be only scar tissue that will gradually dissipate. The only way to know definitively if the lymphoma is gone is to do a biopsy. Because of the position of the tumor (in the center of his abdomen with bowel wrapping all around), they cannot do a needle biopsy so would have to do a laparoscopic surgery to do the biopsy. That is not warranted at this time--Bob would not look forward to another one. He said there are 3 possible scenarios:
1. The tumor is necrotic and the cancer is GONE
2. The tumor is still lymphoma but decreased in size
3. The tumor is still lymphoma and has mutated to be a more aggressive type. Dr. says there is NO evidence of this and considers it HIGHLY unlikely.

So....we wait another 3-4 weeks. Why? because Bob is still feeling bad. He has pain and bloating in his stomach and back (in the area where the tumor is/was) He has also had new pain in his calves--he says not the same as the neuropathy pain. He is also still dizzy at times. If Bob was feeling well, we would just assume the cancer is gone and then monitor his progress. If he starts feeling better in the next couple weeks, the scan scheduled for January 8 will be canceled and then a "monitoring" scan will be done in 2-3 months. Dr. said it is not unusual for people to have all the symptoms Bob is having as a residual effect of chemotherapy. Those effects of chemo are usually about 2 months after the last treatment and last 2-3 months.

In the meantime, Bob is taking Protocel 4 times a day and Paw Paw 4 times a day and hasn't seen any side effects (we were hoping for some signs the cancer was being "expelled" from his system). In the research we both read, it can take months for people to see signs and some people never see any--depends on the type of cancer, the severity, etc. So, he'll keep taking them both and hope to scare all those little buggers away since there must be at least 10 million cancer cells in one place in order for them to show up on a scan. Because Protocel is non-toxic, he could take it indefinitely without any negative side effects.