UPDATE ON DAVE: Today we saw a new oncologist who works out of Hoag Hospital. His name is Dr. Warren Fong. He has 20 years experience, has won a number of peer awards, and received lots of favorable patient reviews online, unlike most of the other doctors we investigated. We both liked Dr. Fong and felt that he was the first doctor out of a string of many who actually cared to address Daves pain in his hip and low back as well, not just the cancer or other health issues. Dr. Fong said he wants to treat the whole patient not just part of the patient and appeared eager to see that Daves life return to the norm he had in January, 2012. While he cannot cure Dave (no one can), he feels confident he can make Dave feel a lot better and stronger, regain some weight and have much less pain and fatigue. Dave has continued to lose weight. He only weighed 107 today. They did one blood test in the office and sent out another one to a lab. So the first thing Dr. Fong did was recommend Dave get shots in the hip and low back to alleviate that constant pain so that he is comfortable enough to make his treatment appointments, etc. The Tylenol Dave has been taking has a negative impact on the liver, and were trying to reverse negative impacts on the liver. A liver cannot be removed and his is already full of the cancer. In the meantime, he gave Dave a prescription to some non-liver affecting medication for pain. He took one at 3:00 and was able to go to his afternoon appointment pretty much pain free, so that made him very happy and relieved. This appointment was to get an X-ray to see if there was any new blockage in his intestines because he wasnt having much stool release since Friday. That turned out to be negative, so no problem there. Dr. Fong talked at length about the need for chemotherapy in order to try to shrink the cancer which now has spread not just to the liver, but probably elsewhere as well and currently is out of control. The treatment he prescribed is the same as the other oncologist suggested. He said that they now have medications and treatments to offset nausea and the typical side effects from the chemo. One medication stops the brain from detecting a need for nausea, so you dont feel nauseated. Every two months they will test him to see if the chemo is working or whether they have to adjust to something different. If he needs adjustments along the way for pain or side effects, they will also do that for him. He said he just got through treating a 70 year old woman full of cancer across her whole abdomen and she did amazingly well through the process. He gave us her name and phone number to call to talk to about her experience. So Dave has decided to give chemo a try. If it doesnt work or hes in too much pain, he can stop at any time - so he has nothing to lose at this point. He starts treatment tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. Each treatment is 3 hours long. He has 3 hours tomorrow, 3 hours on Wednesday, then I take him on Thursday to have IV removed (about half an hour). He returns the following Monday for check up. Then the next week he starts the process all over again with a check up each of the following Mondays between. This will continue I think for 6 months (each set is 2 weeks long), if it is like what the other oncologist said. Dr. Fong is confident he can really improve Daves condition back to where he was in January 2012 - he just cant cure him. The goal is to shrink the tumor and cancer cells and keep the cancer from multiplying. One of the medicines starves the cancer by disallowing blood flow from a specific source (when there are two sources). Not all organs have two blood sources but some do. Dr. Fong is a Catholic believer and knows the power of prayer. That was comforting to Dave as well. Daves prayers all along were for qualify of life and Dr. Fong is treating for both quality and quantity. If Dave can have more quality, then more quantity is just a bonus. Daves spirits are high and he is very optimistic that the Lord will heal him and is part of the process we are undertaking. Hopefully the chemo will not be as harsh as one always fears and that he will be blessed by it and not harmed. Ill keep you posted on how things go along later in the week after he has completed one full session of the treatment.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 02:51:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015