It has been a while since we last posted an update.
A good girlfriend in Chicago sent me a message telling me " You are a warrior be strong".
I have to say Johnny is the Gladiator the Brave Heart with tenacious inner strength, he keeps fighting. Johnny is my Gladiator and your Gladiator.
Monday 1st December, we met with our Oncologist Bobby, only to be told within the first 2 minutes of sitting down Johnny's liver count had elevated severely over the last three weeks from 1.1 to 1.2 to 1.7 but most shockingly to 7.8. The sole reason for his yellowing eyes, yellowing skin, veracious itchy skin, the feeling and taste of toxins within his body and severe discomfort in his stomach.
Come 5pm Monday, evening, Johnny was scheduled urgently for Endoscopic Stenting surgery.
Stenting is the most common palliative treatment for biliary obstruction in un-resectable pancreatic cancer. His "metal" stent inserted in July of this year, the tumor was found to be growing half way up through the stent. Hence the blockage and heavy jaundice. The "metal" stent cannot be extracted as it had become embedded as well as blood vessels wrapped around the stent making themselves mighty comfortable. Therefore, another stent was inserted, this time plastic. It's a Stent within a Stent. A pipe within a pipe. See image below. Every two and half months he has to have Endoscopic Stenting to have the plastic stent replaced and re-checked for tumor growth inside the stent.
The CA19 cancer markers are up, from 127 - 178 - 348 - 358 and now 2411 a major spike. The cancer is growing and Chemo is something we have to re-consider. His two liver tumors are growing considerably and are of concern. We would like to enjoy the Christmas Season with friends and re-start Chemo January 2015. But this is only if Bobby is agreeable.
Wednesday 10th December, we met with Dr. Alexander Gottschalk from UCSF, a specialist in the CyberKnife field, Radiation Oncology. "CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is a non-invasive alternative to surgery for the treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body, including the prostate, lung, brain, spine, liver, pancreas and kidney. The treatment which delivers beams of high dose radiation to tumors with extreme accuracy. Though its name may conjure images of scalpels and surgery, the CyberKnife treatment involves no cutting. In fact, the CyberKnife System is the world’s first and only robotic radiosurgery system designed to treat tumors throughout the body non-invasively, unfortunately it is "rarely" approved by medical insurance companies due to the exorbitant costs and relatively short life extension. There is no promise.
Tuesday 16th December, we shall meet with Bobby to discuss and review the above along with the huge possibility of not being able to qualify due Johnny's body state and ability to recover from both sessions at a time. Chemo and Radiation would be a double whammy on Johnny's body.
Johnny is up and about, as much as he can, he does have a lovely healthy appetite, miserably the weight is not piling on, weight is dismally down to 127. No matter how much he eats the cancer takes it. The heavy night sweats are still with us, he rotates around the bed clockwise looking for a dryer place, before another bed sheet change, these can be up to 4 a night, his sleep is interrupted on an hourly basis. Back up to 18 colorful pills a day along with his two injections for the blood clot.
Stent with in a Stent
CyberKnife - it's a Robot
Fiducial Placement, depending on the type and location of the tumor, the team recommend placement of fiducials which are small gold markers inserted near the tumor to help identify the exact location of the tumor during treatment.
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