Chemotherapy Class

Utah Cancer Specialists offers a class on the chemotherapy process and what to expect in the clinic. Gina and I attended last night (not wasting any time to learn what I'm in for). The class was very informative and I learned a couple of things:

1. My therapy will last about 4.5 hours once a week. The clinic offers a great lounge type area, big chairs, and of course, wifi. All electronic devices are welcomed, so I'm good to go.

2. Quickly my immune system will be impaired and I'll be more susceptible to infection and illness. So, that means lots of hand sanitizer, clean surfaces, and unfortunately, can't be around anyone who is sick or have been exposed to someone who is sick. My white blood cells will be reduced because of the chemo making it extremely difficult to fight off normal sickness.

3. There are about 10 different side affects, none of which I want, but can assume I'll have several.

A couple of things need to be done before I can start chemo (getting my liver to function properly), then the long journey.

Peace.

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Meeting With the Oncologist

First of all, I cannot express how positive and hopeful my parents felt after leaving Dr. Nibley’s Office this morning. My dad is in good hands for sure! 

The first person they met with was Audrey, my dads patient advocate. She takes care of the insurance and financial stuff and also the supportive services like classes. All the classes are free. She gave a schedule of these classes to my mom and dad so they can sign up for them if they want to. There is a fishing trip on the schedule as well! Cool!

Next they met with Dr. Nibley’s P.A., Melissa. She was very kind and after going over my dads medical records and health history, she answered some of their initial questions and then checked my dads incisions and such to make sure everything was healing well and also took a blood sample to check his bilirubin levels. She said my dads cancer was somewhere between stages 2 and 3. Definitely not 4! YAY! There was some new information that Melissa gave them, that probably doesn’t matter at this point, but it was that my dads gallbladder had cancer in it. But that doesn’t change anything… even if the gallbladder was the “primary” source of cancer, the treatment for gallbladder cancer and liver cancer is pretty much the same.

Proposed Treatment

When Dr. Nibley came into the room, he pulled out a sheet of paper and drew pictures while he explained things and then proposed his suggestions for a moderately-aggressive treatment plan.  He was very positive and upbeat and mentioned several times about what an advantage it was that my dad is so young ;) He totally expects my dads body to respond well to the treatment. However, before the chemo/radiation can begin, Dr. Nibley wants to make sure that the liver is functioning properly because the chemo drugs will be processed through the liver and it needs to be as healthy as possible. 

Because there is a risk that the large tumor could shift and squeezes off the bile duct again, he would still like a bile drain to be surgically installed. He plans to consult with Dr. Bladder, the radiologist/surgeon who “unsuccessfully” attempted this last week, to see what may be done to accomplish this successfully this time. Dr. Nibley was always very patient and compassionate and offered much hope!

As soon as possible, after my dads liver is functioning properly, he will be given a round of chemo therapy and radiation therapy. Dr. Nibley said that a round is basically 3 weeks of chemo/radiation and 1 week rest. After each round of treatment, my dads tumors will be measured to see if they are shrinking which is the main goal at this point.  

Note:  In case any of you are wondering… surgically removing the large tumor is not advisable because of its position near many vital organs.  (We asked if the tumors shrank enough could surgically removing them eventually be a possibility, and he didn’t completely discount that idea…) We also asked Dr. Nibley if a liver transplant could be an option but he said in the case of cancer it is not typically approved due to the fact that small cancerous cells can still be lurking within the body. Liver transplants for cancer patients has not been highly successful.

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Update 1

Let's start from the beginning for those who are just tuning in.

On March 5th my dad went into surgery to have his gall bladder removed. While in the surgery the surgeon found a large mass on his liver. They sent a piece of the tumor to pathology for biopsy.

 

A week later we still had no answers, and the results of the tests were all incongruent. He had a CT scan done to find out if there were more tumors and where the primary source of the cancer cells were coming from. The scan didn't show any other tumors but that the large mass was in fact, cancerous. Now we just needed to know where it had come from.

 

Dr. Ayers, who is a Doctor at Intermountain Medical Center, classified Thom’s type of cancer as “Cholangiocarcinoma” also known as “Bile Duct Cancer”. One bile duct on Thom’s liver is blocked with cancerous tumors and is being identified at this time as the primary source of cancer which has metastasized and formed a larger tumor that sits against the liver and is responsible for squeezing off a second bile duct (healthy) causing Thom’s jaundice condition.  Here’s the miracle….During Saturday’s endoscopy/surgery the surgeon discovered that Thomas’ large tumor somehow had (miraculously) shifted its position which in turn freed the healthy bile duct from being pinched off.  Nothing but a miracle!  Thank you for your prayers!  (This explains why Thomas’ condition began to improve suddenly last Thursday.) 

During the surgery on Saturday, the surgeon wasn't able to insert the stent into the smaller bile duct because of the tumors getting in the way so the plan is now to begin chemotherapy and shrink the tumors which will allow insertion of the stent at another time.

Yesterday, Dr. Ayers released Thomas from the hospital with the instructions to eat non-greasy and non-oily foods which is funny because right after the doctor stepped out of the hospital room, the staff brought in a meal for Thom consisting of  Roast with plenty of mashed potatoes and gravy…Not exactly non-greasy foods…..hahaha.  Crazy.   Needless to say, Gina is very relieved to have checked Thom out of that hospital and they are home at this time.

Going forward….

Thomas has an appointment Tuesday, March 25^th, with Dr. Nibley who was Chandy’s cancer doctor. She and Gary (Gina's brother) love him and his staff which is very comforting and encouraging. It is expected that plans will be made to begin chemo treatments very soon.

Please feel free to come visit Thom. We do not want anyone to feel that they are not invited to come visit and spend time with our family. We do ask that you please remember we are trying to focus on my dad and help him the best we can, as well as texts, phone calls, FB messages and emails. It is a bit overwhelming for us so we have decided to have Lisa and Jennifer be the advocate for extended family, friends and neighbors with questions in regards to my dad. We would really like to focus on my dad and this process.

We haven't had that much information ourselves, and we are not trying to exclude anyone else from the information we do have. We have decided this blog is the best for updates so please feel free to share with family and/or friends. We will update this blog with the latest as soon as we have it ourselves. We are hoping it will be a few times a week, if not daily and will not start until this Tuesday after meeting the oncologist.

We are so thankful for all of the love, support, prayers, dinners made, blessings, fasting, thoughts and words of encouragement and comfort. We are so blessed to know all of you.

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