Update: My Dad/fluid retention/CAT scan

So, I spoke with my Mom last night about my dad’s CAT scan results. There was a tiny bit of good news and whole lot of not good.

The little good — the 5-FU, as far as they can tell from the CAT scan, has erradicated the cancer from his lymphnodes surrounding his liver. The liver looks pretty much the same from the last scan which I think was in the beginning of October.

The not so good – It seems that his cancer has found another way out of the liver. The scan showed cancerous nodules on his Mesentery (which the Dr explained to be the “saran wrap” that holds your guts in — he’s a very funny guy). Needless to say, that is not good news. In the beginning, they were not sure if that mesentery thing was affected because it was showing up as fuzzy on the scans. Well, now for sure it is.

This is why he was retaining all that fluid – it was drained on Monday and came right back in full force on Tuesday. They said to “install” a drain (sorry don’t know the technical term) would be too risky at this point due to his coumadin levles. They are doubling the dosage for his diuretic to try and help with that. They said he’s basically bleeding plasma into his abdomen because of the cancer on the mesentery.

They’re putting him on Abraxane, an experimental drug that was originally used to treat Breast cancer has did not respond to other types of chemotherapy. It’s supposed to slow or even stop the growth of the cancer. They’re also trying to get the insurance to approve Tarceva (which apparently blocks the protein that cancer cells thrive on).

It’s a lot to take in. They had originally told us that if the mesentery was affected it was going to be a much worse battle because there wouldnt be the option to resect if other areas were affected. Now we’re in that boat.

They also informed my Mom that their insurance company, as of January 1st, no longer covers PET scans for anything except an initial diagnosis. I’m really very upset by this, as they were very good about it in the previous year. It’s just so much more accurate than the CAT scans

The dr is going to look into clinical trials to see what is out there that my dad would qualify for and see if he can convince the insurance company to overlook their PET scan rule for him.

I’m not sure what else to say….has anyone had this type of experience (mesentery infected, use of abraxane or tarceva)? Any and all info would be very helpful to me. I just want to get a better understanding of everything.