13th Update: Hospital Part 2 and Back Home

October 25, 2018

Things were going well until Thursday (10/11). He didn't sleep nor eat much the last few days and started to vomit tons of ink black liquid around 7 am. He threw up 10-12 times and finally stopped around 2 pm. We went to the ER and when they were checking him in they asked if he was religious to bring in a priest. Everyone was terrified and worried. After a bunch of chest and stomach x-rays, MRI, CT scan, bone scan, kidney, and lower back scan, blood tests, and exams they weren't able to tell us much other than he was anemic, dehydrated, had low blood pressure, and his metabolic panel was all over the place. Every doctor has a different opinion of what happened and where it came from. They're not sure if it was his esophageal tumor bleeding, or if he has a microtear in his intestines, or if it's a tiny ulcer somewhere. They were pushing antacids and hoped he'll be discharged on Monday (15th). They were observing him and hoping they won't have to do a Hail Mary pass endoscopy because so much could go wrong there. He's in a lot of pain from the top of his back down to his lower back and continuing down his right leg. He's slowly improving, but his spirits still seem a little low. We're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best of course. It's been rough last few days. 

The mysterious internal bleeding had stopped by the time we arrived at the ER on Thu, but it happened again Sun (14th) night. Thankfully less dramatic and for a shorter time, but still. He also lost some range of motion in his right toes, but no one can figure out that one either. 

Dad's weak, out of breath, exhausted...he says he feels like he's just struggling.

The pulmonary team compared his January CT scans to the CT scans from 10/17 and it turns out that the fibrosis has hardly changed at all so now it's the pneumonitis that is the culprit behind his breathing issues. The good news is that pneumonitis can and will be treated in order to reverse itself, so eventually, 3 months, 6 months, a year from now he can be back to where he was before the Keytruda and Oxaliplatin. 

Dad had a blood transfusion that helped him feel much better and hopefully those new red blood cells will help his anemia too. 

Dad's finally home again and happy to be back. We had another delirium episode on Saturday. He's loopy and hurting. He has a lot of sleep and calories to catch up on. A busy week full of appointments...

-Nutritionist: helped us with menu meal plans and gave a list of high-calorie food options to help my dad eat somewhere between 3,000-4,000 calories a day to gain back his lost weight and be strong enough to resume chemotherapy in 6ish weeks. 

-Pain management specialist: I was happy to see he was all for complementary and alternative medicine approaches.

-Pulmonologist: confirmed the lung medications and said pretty much exercise is the only thing that has a chance at healing his lungs 

-Oncologist: wants to see dad in a couple weeks to reassess and is thinking of cutting Oxaliplatin and Keytruda of his plan and only keep Docetaxel, Leucovorin, and 5-Fluorouracil

-Masseuse: immediate relief dropped his pain levels by 2 or 3 numbers

-Still to come next week are the radiation oncologist, acupuncturist, gastroenterologist, etc.

***An incredibly huge thank you to DJ, Stacy, Chaim, Jai Mi, Varun, Robb, and to Sandra and David and their families who matched with my dad donated blood!!! Thank you to Rohan for being so patient and encouraging with the frantic phone calls from me!!! Thank you Ashley and Sam for going above and beyond!!! Thank you to Lauren who I know if you would you could!!! Thank you for the articles and information Jaymie, Laura, Jeanne, Sarah, and Janine!!! Thank you to all the friends and family who've been there asking questions and sending loving messages: Harry, Chris, Maria, Denise, Val, Tom, Tony, Dian, Peter, Jimmy, Zoe, Aidan, Allegra, Mark, Bill, Vikki, and Stephanie!!! I'm sure in my overwhelmed and sleep deprived state I'm forgetting loved ones, so please forgive me.***