First, today was a good day with promising news. But to make sure I remember everything, I will be going in order.
Last night was not very good. She was really feeling miserable all evening. Her throat and mouth were really hurting and she was very nausea. She was trying to drink as much liquids as she could since they had told us her creatine was low and that may have been part of why she was so nausea.
We got up early this morning to leave for Portland at 6 for her appointment at 9. She was actually up at 4 because she was having trouble sleeping. We made it to the hospital without any problems and actually arrived about 20 minutes early. They took her right away and we were actually in the pre-op room by 9. The next hour went well except that the first nurse had trouble getting an IV started and she was fairly rough which caused her a lot of pain. The difficulty was likely because she was somewhat dehydrated from the past several days. She ended up getting stuck 6 times, and the Anesthesiologist actually got it going for her. They ended up taking her in for the EUS at 10 which was a half hour earlier than scheduled.
I was called back in after about an hour and she was doing great although a little groggy.
Now for the positive news. Both doctors (main doctor and his assistant) came out to let us know the results. They indicated that the tumor in her stomach had shrunk a great deal and was now very small. Clearly the terrible Chemo she has been going through did some real good. Additionally, there was a small cyst on the end of her Pancreas which they completely drained and sent a sample to the lab for tests, but they indicated it was most likely just a cyst and nothing else. They also indicated that the scan (both EUS and CT) did not show anything else that looked suspicious although they did take a couple samples of lymph nodes to test to be sure. Bottom line is that the cancer seemed to respond to the Chemo (all her suffering seems to have paid off) and that things are looking positive at this point. Of course, the cancer could still be hiding anywhere, but at least all the indications right now are going in the right direction. We did talk to the surgeon's patient navigator (she came by to see us several times while we were there) and she is making sure everything will be ready for the surgeon to talk to us on Tuesday. It sounds like we will have the surgery scheduled at that time and we should find out exactly what she wants to do as well as when. The when will mainly be determined by when Barbara has recovered enough from the Chemo and when the surgeon has an opening in her schedule. It could be anytime from a couple weeks to a month or so. All-in-all, today went very well and our spirits are cautiously optimistic.
We left the hospital and we ended up doing a little shopping as she was feeling pretty good. Since her mouth was doing a lot better today, we went to a buffet in Portland so she could try a little bit of a lot of different foods. Her taste buds are still recovering and many things she normally likes are not tasting good. As it turns out, most of what she tried did not taste right although she did find one or two things that did. She ended up really liking whole chocolate milk. On the way home we got her some more to help her continue to drink as much as possible. I think the mouth sores are finally starting to go away and her nausea is also getting a lot better.
I hope I did not forget anything. If anyone has any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email. Please do not hesitate to spread the word that things are finally starting to look up although we still have a long way to go.
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