On December 18th Matthew went in for his quarterly MD Anderson appointments. The news was not great. There was 15% tumor growth. One of the tumors is partially blocking one of his ureters. The doctor was also concerned with a chronic partial blockage in the small intestine. Matthew had an appointment to come back and revisit several of these issues at the beginning of this month. Due to the tumor growth, the doctor determined that the current chemo protocol was not working (although, due to hospitalizations, he had far fewer treatments than he should have had). Matthew wanted to make it through Christmas, and he did.
To the present. There are several current issues. The number one is the blockage and the resulting pain. He has been very miserable. He is on pain medication, but they have ordered a pain pump in addition. He has also been having painful and persistent hiccups. He has managed to get some liquids down and keep them down. Second, his blood pressure has been high. They are doing additional tests to try to determine the cause of this. Third, initial bloodwork I indicates that his kidney function is ok, but they will be doing some additional tests to determine if there are any issues on that front.
Mom is at the hospital, and Dad is working and holding down the fort with Isaac. Thanks to Christopher and Rachel for helping to keep them fed.
Of course, prayers are welcome. A small start would be for Matthew (and therefore Mom) to get some rest tonight.
A quick update on my friends.
My coworker Taryn is supposed to be headed to MDA this week to determine if she is a surgical candidate. My other coworker, Tammy, has recently finished chemo and radiation, but is currently in the hospital with a staph infection. Prayers are appreciated for them as well.
Well..today, I will share this song with you...although written from a cancer patient's perspective, I completely agree with the sentiment.
We love you, Matthew!
ReplyDelete-Rachel