Medical stuff – treatments, outcomes, Dr visits
Wednesday was our sixth visit to Rush for Suzanne’s PATHway clinical trial. As usual, many Doctors are always anxious to see her while she is there. Her oncologist now only visits with her every other infusion, and this was the one. Very happy with all that he is seeing and always comments that her blood work comes back perfect. This is important to him because the trial drug Ketruda does cause many body organs to malfunction including the liver and…
Becoming somewhat a routine now, Blood work, Doctors, infusion, traffic, this week’s trip to Chicago was somewhat uneventful. Suzanne’s Blood work was ‘perfect’ according to those we met with. As she is presenting some itchy spots on her skin, her PATHway coordinator commented that they were a symptom of the trial so there were good indications that she is getting the trial drug; a good thing. Happy with the way things were so Suzanne was off to infusion. Her swallowing…
Every twelve weeks during Suzanne’s PATHway Trial, Neck and Chest CT scans are taken. Neck because that’s where the cancer was originally and chest because that’s the most common place it could show up again. One of the reasons she decided to take part in this trial was that scans are taken so often. That means that her doctors are more closely monitoring her health than if she had just followed the ‘Wait and See’ plan. Today was the first…
I was gently reminded by more than one person that it has been a while since I posted an update on Suzanne. Well, I could blame the weather; how about the time change; or maybe the full moon. Actually, it’s the fact that things are going pretty smoothly and our regular life has taken over. We operate on a three-week calendar now that the PATHway trial has started. On our last visit to Chicago, Suzanne had her ‘arch nemesis’ the…
I heard that word today and have to admit it was a new one to me. In fact, there have been dozens of words in the past months that I never heard before; I didn’t have them in sixth-grade spelling; don’t remember them as part of my college education; have never seemed to have them come up in conversation in my 60+ years of life; yet, here we are. Our medical marathon started yesterday morning at 7 am when we…
You should have seen Suzanne today when Dr. A told her she was ahead of the curve; You should have seen her smile when he shared his excitement over the most recent CT Scans; You should have seen her eyes light up when he told her he was going to cap off her Trach and she could move on from just water. Remember that Dr. A is our ‘Douting Thomas’; our most conservative doctor; our ‘Eeyore’. So when Dr. A…
Another after-surgery checkup today with Dr. A’s PA (yea, too many initials there). Anyway, since the surgery, all of Suzanne’s followup’s have been with Dr. A’s assistant. So far, he has always stopped in for a cameo but most of the work is done by the staff at this point, although he still calls the shots. Suzanne’s swelling continues to go down as expected. We compared last week’s photos to today and it was really noticeable, even if we don’t…
The phrase for today is: Extracapsular extension. Defined as invasive cancer passing through the nodal capsule of the lymph node into the perinodal tissue. In farmer terms, the fluid-filled tractor tire had a leak in the yard and it could kill the grass. That’s what the pathology for Suzanne’s cancer showed. Of the twenty-five lymph nodes that were removed from her neck, two sprung a leak. What that means is not definitive. Basically, there could be a problem down the…
“911 – What’s your emergency?” A soft muffled voice on the line answers “Hurry, I’m being held hostage in room 1320 at Rush Hospital, send a SWAT team quickly” That’s the scene that unfolded before my eyes when I arrived at Suzanne’s room today. Early morning, the ‘Grey’s Anatomy Crew’ did do a scope of the surgery area this morning, took pictures to send to Dr. A, showed Suzanne all that was going on, and made some 8×10’s for the…
When I arrived at Suzanne’s room today and asked how has your day been going, she responded, “just been watching the dandelions grow” The ‘Grey’s Anatomy Crew’ came by and someone asked “has she really been here 14 days” to which Suzanne quickly and clearly answered “YES I HAVE” They all laughed and someone commented “Don’t ask her how many hours it’s been” They did remove the stitches and extra bandage on her wrist this morning for the first glimpse…