Husband starting chemo

Hi everyone,

I haven’t written for awhile. Things haven’t been going great here for my husband. (41 yrs. old with cc) We just keep getting more and more bad news.

About two weeks ago, they had planned to give him chemo and radiation because surgery was out. The Dr’s at Ohio State and MD Anderson agreed upon that. The tumor is too close to one of the major veins so the plan was to try the chemo and radiation to see if it would shrink it in the spot we need it to, so they could operate.

As he was being marked by a PET scan for the IMRT radiation, they found cancer cells in his lymph nodes behind his right kidney, along his aorta and along his vena cava. Radiation is now out because they said they couldn’t radiate that much of his body. They said they can only do chemo at this point. If he did no treatment at all, he would have 4-6 months left. We are obviously devastated. We have two kids – a 12 yr. old daughter and 14 old son. I am so scared for them and for my husband.

Anyway, we met with the chemo Dr., Dr. Saab at Ohio State who recommended a clinical trial of Carboplatin, Paclitaxel, (Taxol) and Xeloda. Three weeks on (chemo once a week) and 1 week off. He said he should do two cycles of that, then give him another CAT scan to see if the tumor has “responded” – he said there is only a 5% chance of response. My first issue was quality of life for him. He hasn’t been sick with this at all. I dont’ want him suffering and sick if this chemo isn’t going to help him in the end. I brought that up to the chemo Dr. and he said this chemo can prolong his life and possibly GIVE him quality of life if it keeps the cancer at bay. I told him he hasn’t been sick,etc…..he said that will be coming to an end soon.

He got his first chemo this past Fri. and did ok. He did have an allergic reaction to the Paclitaxel at first. Flushing and chest tightening. THey slowed it down and instead of it taking one hour to go in, they put it in over two hours. He was pretty good yesterday, just tired. Today he had some stomach pain first thing this morning and is just so tired. He is taking anti-nausea pills preventively. I know that is contributing to his tiredness.

Anway, just wanted to share with all of you caring, wonderful people out there what is going on with us. Prayers for everyone –

Kris