Waiting..

Sorry this is a bit delayed. Matthew was released from the hospital. He has been quite uncomfortable. His back has been cramping a lot. He has an spot at MDA tomorrow. Hopefully, his platelet count will be up! More to come...hopefully tomorrow.

Hello....Grey's Anatomy?

Since ER is off the air--Grey's--we might have some script ideas for you....  As our sister, Emily, says, "I am almost convinced my brother wants to be the muse of a medical drama writer."

Matthew is still at MD Anderson.  He is off of the pain pump, and on regular Tylenol.  Why Tylenol?  They use Tylenol to treat the fever that keeps spiking (last night 102).  Another issue is his resting heart rate, which has been 100 (upon entering the hospital it was 60).  This is down from previous numbers that kept setting off his alarms.  All of his tests, scans, and ekgs, have come back clear.  He has been up and walking around, and my Mom says that overall, he seems, "Much better."  They are thinking about starting antibiotics.

Another night

Matthew is having some trouble with pain/ pain management.  Therefore, he will be staying another night.  There are no other complications, and no other news at this time.

Overnight Stay

Matthew is having an overnight stay tonight, but unfortunately, it is not in a posh hotel.

The good news is, Matthew's procedure (partial splenic artery embolization) went well.  They were successful in getting his pain under control, and he was sleeping when my mom called around 8:00.  He has to stay overnight because the procedure requires that he lay flat for 6 hours.  This is because the procedure is done without any staples or stitches.  Although the procedure went well, we won't know the outcome (whether or not the platelet count rises) for a while yet (I don't know the time frame).

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers.  If all goes as planned, he should head home in the morning.  I will update when I know more.

What doesn't kill us...

A couple of developments have occurred since my last post.  First, and most importantly, Matthew had a PET scan, and we found out that he was not in remission.  He has 3 tumors  in the colon area.  One of these is the spot that we had been watching and was not clear previously.  The report came in the mail without any additional information from the doctor.  Dad contacted MD Anderson, and has been waiting for more information.

 Today, they received final clarification on a procedure that is scheduled for Monday/Tuesday 4/23 and 4/24.  They will do a "partial splenic artery embolization" on Tuesday.  From research, and our understanding, this is a procedure that will hopefully result in decreasing the amount of platelets that are stored in his spleen, and possibly cut some of the blood flow to the tumors.  They are hoping that this procedure will help address his low platelet counts, and will allow for more chemo.  The procedure is supposed to be done with a catheter and should be outpatient.

So, unfortunately, the fight continues.  Pray that this procedure brings good results.

Nothing New....

Some of you may have seen a Facebook post or heard some news about Matthew bleeding and a low platelet count.  Fortunately, it turns out that both of those are a problem. 

Matthew started bleeding from his stoma on Sunday evening.  The stoma is a result of the colectomy Matthew had last May.  My Dad took him to the emergency room because of the fear of excessive bleeding as a result of his low platelet count.  The bleed stopped, and they did scans to check for internal bleeding, which came back negative.  However, they told Matthew that his platelet count was a 20--which is extremely low.

A couple days later Matthew went to the oncologist. The oncologist tested his blood and found that his platelet count was in the 60's.  His thoughts were that they did not test Matthew's blood quickly enough, and his platelet clotting occurred causing the count to be inaccurate.  He sent him to LabCorp for another count (immediately after testing it in the office) to test his theory.  The blood count from LabCorp came back as too low to count.  This confirmed his theory that the hospital's count was inaccurate.  He also told Matthew that bleeding from the stoma was very common (which nobody had mentioned before). 

Therefore, despite the scare.  Matthew is still in the same place he was in last week.  His counts haven't gone up yet, but the doctor doesn't seem concerned.  So, we just hope that he needs more time.  The next step at this point is scheduling his colon resection.  This is not on the books yet, but they are hoping for the end of April. 

Thanks for the continued thoughts and prayers.

Remission!!!

Matthew's scans were clean!  They saw no cancer!  His platelet count was still low (74), but hopefully, with time, they will gain some more ground.  He will go back in 3 months for another set of scans.  He still needs to go through his resection surgery.

For now though, we are relieve, and thankful......