Latest appointments

First thank you for all for your continued comments, prayers, gifts, food etc…  Please know that those touch our lives and hearts.  It sounds sappy but it is true.  Forgive me for those I haven’t gotten back to via email/facebook-I will.

I met with my Health Coach last week.  Not a lot happened there.  She did recommend acupuncture for dealing with chemo side effects.  Also she got me an appointment with a Nutritionist at Abbott in Aug.(that was the soonest she could work me in.)

Today I had a more productive appointment with a 2nd oncologist at Methodist.  His name is Dr. Joe Leech.  I like him a lot and he has some different ways of approaching this battle.  He is a young guy and he has kids about the same age as ours.   He is leaving Methodist to go to Abbott where my surgeons are but not where my health insurance tells me I can go for chemo.  So that is a battle I will have to work out in a couple months.  For now though he agreed to review my case.  He spent a lot of time and research going through my 2 year history with this disease.  He doesn’t offer a cure all but he had some insightful ideas on treating the type of cancer I have (Stage 4 Colon Cancer with the KRAS Mutation).  First he said we need to look at this as a chronic illness that I will always have to battle to some extent.  He said we know we have cancer that we may never completely be able to wipe out, but that the cancer doesn’t hurt me as long as it is not growing and active.
2nd he pointed out that I should never go off of the drug Avastin.  At this time he feels that, that drug is the key to me living with this disease.   Avastin is a drug that isn’t processed by the liver and doesn’t have a lot of side effects.  He said even his patients that have pushed the cancer to the point of disappearing, he still keeps them on Avastin.  Third he suggested that I go back to a chemo regiment I had 1.5 years ago called Folfox.  It is a good recommendation for 2 reasons.  First that chemo isn’t processed by the liver-so my liver gets a bit of a break, but we can still actively fight the disease.  Second my cancer hasn’t seen that drug in awhile and now we will mix it with Avastin to surprise it.  I know that sounds weird but like any medication that you are on for a long time, your body(or cancer) seems to grow immune to it.  There is always side effects of everything they throw into me.  The big side effect of this regiment is the neuropathy(loss of feeling) in the hands and feet.  I have already lost some but have also gained a little bit back.  He has some ideas to try and minimize or get around those effects.  Lastly he suggested that I  should see Dr. Grothy at Mayo to get involved in a clinical trial.  There are two new drugs that are working against the type of cancer I have.  The problem is my liver must recover yet again from the damage it has endured.  My bilirubin is at 2.4.  It needs to get back to at least a 1.8 to be eligible.  I told him I am already set to see Dr. Grothy on July 14th.  He thought that was great as that would get the ball rolling, even if my liver wasn’t quite ready yet.  Overall he feels we should be a little more aggressive at this stage as I am young and healthy-other than this little cancer thing.  Pat G. was the one who got me in to see him and I think it was a real hit-so a big thank you to her.

Overall I/we are doing well.  I am just trusting that God will work everything out-liver numbers, chemo.’s Dr. appointments, nutrition and Healing.  As Pat and I talked about today…  We scurry around making all these plans, trying to resolve this thing called cancer and He already has His plan.  He already knows what is going to happen.  He has never once said that my PET scan looks bad or that maybe I should give up.  All I have heard is Trust.  I will let you all know if I hear more.

Karen and the boys are doing well.  Life goes on…Karen’s birthday was today.  Brenden came through and got her our gifts that I had hidden.  Soccer continues, Tae Kwon Do continues, swimming lessons continue, prayer meetings continue, work continues and somehow between it all I do a little chemo.  Such is life for the Baty Bunch.

Peace,

Chris