Monday, September 24, 2007

Surgery Update and No Chemo

Karen's been sick the last two weeks with the exception of yesterday. These weeks have been some of the hardest yet and Karen hasn't been able to do much of anything. At some point I should write down what chemo is actually like as I don't think folks really understand. I know I didn't.

She was scheduled for chemo #10 today but upon examination, Dr. Moriarty decided to give her a break. She's doing well today and grateful for the rest.

There is also talk of switching her from chemo every two weeks to chemo every three weeks, just until surgery. This will help regain her strength. This is not definite but let's see.

We met with Dr. Ravi last Friday. He was pleasant and confident. He spoke quickly and to the point. Overall we were pleased with the encounter.

Dr. Ravi would perform at a minimum a removal of the right lobe of Karen's liver. That brings with it the gall bladder. The colon surgery may or may not be done at the same time.

Unfortunately he did not commit to a surgery date citing the CEA level as being too high and one of her tumors being too close to an artery. It appeared though that he had not had time to review the latest round of test results.

Moriarty promised to call him and review Karen's case again to determine a more definite course of action. I hope they figure it out as it was very tough to leave Ravikumar's office without a date.

Karen's last chemo on September 11th was the last time she received Avastin. She has to be off this for at least 6 weeks before it's safe to undergoe surgery. Ravi prefers to wait 8 weeks just to be safe. He has a zero-mortality rate so I guess it pays to be cautious. That puts us sometime in November at the earliest.

The next chemo session will be next Monday.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You guys are doing fine. There’s a lot happening as the course of Karen’s treatment plays out. I wish there was some helpful knowledge I could share for the art of stress free waiting. My wife tried yoga and for a while, I took up making fun of her. She’s still doing yoga.

Hold Fast

Don MacLeod