| 31 Aug, Fri |
7:45 AM Lars had another CT Scan this morning to try
and figure out why he has a fever and how to control the muscle
spasms.
11:00 AM Heard from MD Anderson in Houston, TX and they said the
treatment Lars is receiving here is what they would do. So we are on
the right track. 17:30 PM Started Chemo treatment.
Still do not understand what is causing the fever and still working on the
muscle spasms in diaphragm. Radiologist viewed CT scan and said
that it looks like the lesions in the liver are now filled with liquid
rather than mucus as the last CT scan showed. This is good. Lars
will stay in the hospital tonight. |
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| 30 Aug, Thu |
Lars was admitted back into the hospital because the new
medication is helping but not relieving all the muscle spasms. He is
having a hard time sleeping due to the muscle spasms. So Dr.
Whitecar readmitted him so they could monitor the medication and give him
something (Valium) to get a good nights rest. |
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| 29 Aug, Wed |
Lars is still having trouble with hiccupping (muscle
spasms in the diaphragm) I called Dr. Whitecar twice last night and at 8
this morning, the medication is not working. Dr. Whitecar prescribed
another medication and this one seems to be doing the trick. Lars
takes it twice a day and it takes away most of the muscle spasms - he
still had some occurrences but they were not as strong and a couple hours apart.
Hopefully this medication will do the trick.
Katherine heard Daddy in the bedroom this afternoon and went
crawling down the hall to find him. |
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| 27 Aug, Mon |
Lars is staying home from work today because his abdominal
muscles still hurt from hiccupping for 36 hours. Otherwise he said
he feels better now then he has in the past month. He is eating and
has been able to keep food down.
His chemo schedule is the following:
Every Friday for 4 weeks and then 2 weeks off then it starts over
again. At the end of each 6 week period he will have a CT scan to
see if the tumors have stopped growing or are shrinking. He will
have blood work done at each chemo treatment. |
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| 26 Aug, Sun |
Lars stills has the hiccups. He says it feels like
he has been doing sit ups for the past 36 hours. I gave Dr. Whitecar
a call. He forgot to tell us that the prescription for nausea was
also good for the hiccups. Since Lars was not nauseous he was not
taking those pills. He started taking that medication and the hiccups subsided. |
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| 25 Aug, Sat |
Lars got the hiccups in the morning. Dr. Whitecar
said that they were a side effect to one of the anti-nausea pills given to
Lars before the chemo treatment. Dr. Whitecar said that since Lars
was not nauseous from the chemo he would cut out that anti-nausea pill on
the next round. |
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| 24 Aug, Fri |
Lars gave Dr. Whitecar the go - ahead to start
chemo. At 11:00 AM Lars received his first dose of chemo. (click
to enlarge either photo)
We spent the night in the hospital so Lars could be monitored for
pain and possible side effects from the chemo. |
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| 23 Aug, Thu |
Met with Dr. Whitecar, oncologist. He said the
cancer in the liver are high grade tumors. The treatment for colon
cancer is a 3 drug regiment: CPT 11, 5FU, and Leucovorin (Vitamin B
that helps carry
the 5FU to the cells).
Thurs night Lars started to feel quite a bit of pain when
breathing. At 10:30 PM I called Dr. Whitecar and was instructed to take
him to the emergency room for pain control and he would start chemo
Friday. Dr. Whitecar believes that the pain is coming from one of
the tumors in the liver that is growing close to the surface and causing inflammation
between the liver and another organs. Lars and I spent the night in
the hospital with Lars' parents watching Katherine and Eric at home. |
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| 21 Aug, Tue |
Found polyp in the colon and removed.
Here is what the polyp looked liked before it was removed:
(Click on either image to enlarge)
And, the colon after it had been removed:
P.M. Dr. Allan Williams called to let Lars know that they had
biopsied the
polyp and it was cancerous. They believe this is the primary source
of the cancer. This makes the liver cancer a secondary cancer. |
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| 20 Aug, Mon |
Liver Biopsy Results - Adenocarcinoma. Scheduled colonoscopy
and upper GI for Tuesday morning |
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| 17 Aug, Fri |
1030 PM Elizabeth called her mother, Linda Ruddy, from the
outpatient clinic and Linda got into her car and made the five hour drive
to Columbus to help Elizabeth with the twins. Unfortunately I was
not much help because I was not allowed to lift anything over 10 pounds
(which both kids far exceed!) |
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| 17 Aug, Fri |
Went to work as normal this morning and handled a half
dozen or so legal assistance clients. Then I came home for
lunch. In the middle of lunch I got a call from Dr. Williams'
office. The nurse told me to get down to the office as soon as
possible, and bring my wife.
I called work and told them I had to go downtown. First thing
Major Morgan asked was what we were going to do with the twins. We
didn't know because none of our neighbors were home, so she told us to
bring them to the office where they would be taken care of.
After we dropped off the twins we went to Dr. Williams'
office. He let us know that the CT scan had come back with tumors
through out the liver. It also showed a problem with the colon and a
couple of spots on my lungs. For the first time he used the
"cancer" word. He then scheduled me for a liver biopsy
that afternoon. We then went to the outpatient clinic where I was
prepared for the biopsy. Then Liz took me home to sleep off the
sedative. We find out the results on Monday. |
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| 16 Aug, Thu |
About 9 AM I went to the clinic and we had the CT scan
done. I knew there had to be some sort of problem because after
scanning me for 10 minutes the tech comes in and asks if my doctor is
"running any other tests" on me. I told him yes, several
and he went back about his work. I stayed in the CT machine for
about another 20 minutes. The tech said the results would be sent to
Dr. Williams and I should hear something on Friday. |
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| 15 Aug, Wed |
1 PM When I got back to work I decided that I did not want to
wait until Friday. I called the Baptist Memorial Hospital Outpatient
clinic (where the CT would be done) and had the appointment moved up to
Thursday Morning. |
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| 15 Aug, Wed |
9 AM After seeing a total of five different doctors I returned
to the Gastroenterologist this morning. Dr. Williams was still
unable to come up with an answer. I really insisted that we need to
take the next step, whatever that was. He made an appointment for me
to have a CT scan on Friday, 17 Aug. |
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| Early Aug |
Due to some unusual blood test results the doctor
scheduled me for an ultra-sound of my liver. The results were that
the surface of my liver was uneven, which is abnormal. But, he
wanted to get a couple more tests results back and watch things for a few
more days. |
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| Early July |
I started having evening fevers and night
sweats. Went to the doctor. We did a battery of blood tests
but were unable to track down the problem. |
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