March 14, 2018
Tim had a CT scan on Monday, and we've been awaiting the results with some apprehension. The last few weeks have been pretty rough for Tim -- being hospitalized for internal bleeding, ten days of radiation, draining more than 2 liters of fluid from his stomach due to ascites. The scan showed that the tumor has decreased in size -- . . .
March 1, 2018
On Monday, Tim completed his 10 day course of radiation. Over the past few days, he's had more nausea and no appetite, likely due to the radiation. The side effects from radiation typically show up 2-3 weeks after the last treatment. Yesterday, his oncologist recommended having a CT scan (scheduled for March 12) to assess the status of . . .
February 14, 2018
Valentine's Day
Tim started radiation on Monday. The radiation targets three areas: the primary tumor, the wall of his duodenum (where his recent bleed happened) and the lymph node that was picked up on his last PET scan. He will have daily radiation for 10 days except weekends and holidays. The goal of the radiation is to reduce the “tumor load” and . . .
February 3, 2018
Although it started out hopeful on Monday, by Tuesday we began several touch-and-go days with Tim being hospitalized. The roller coaster ride continues.
On Monday Tim met with his second opinion Oncologist at UCSF. The Oncologist had a different interpretation of Tim’s latest PET scan than his Oncologist at Kaiser. Instead of seeing . . .
January 23, 2018
Tim had an endoscopy yesterday to alleviate the blockage in his bile duct stent. It was a success. The surgeon was able to remove all the "sludge" that was blocking the stent. Almost immediately after Yesterday, Tim had his endoscopic procedure to unblock his clogged bile duct stent. It was a success. The surgeon was able to remove . . .
January 21, 2018
A change of plans. Tim got a call from Kaiser late Thursday afternoon -- the day before he was to start his latest chemo treatment. Kaiser realized that Tim needed to have labs done before he could start on chemo. So, on Thursday evening, we rushed off to the lab. The results didn't come in until after 11 p.m. The tests showed that . . .
January 16, 2018
Yesterday Tim met with his Oncologist to discuss his latest PET scan results that showed the cancer is growing rapidly again. He’s been getting sicker over the past month with nausea and abdominal pain. There is only one option left – an older chemo regimen that has shown to extend survival time for most people by a few months. This . . .
