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Dad had a CT Scan yesterday and went back to the hospital today to get the results. The tumor on the pancreas has grown slightly, but not a lot. The cancer has not spread to the liver. That’s the good news. Unfortunately the CT Scan showed a large fluid buildup in his right lung. The fluid covered one of the larger tumors on the lung which made it hard to tell if the tumor had grown and caused the excess flood or if the fluid was caused by pneumonia, a reaction to chemo, etc...
They’re currently in the process of preparing dad for the fluid removal. They’re going to stick a needle in the lungs to drain the fluid. Draining the lungs could cause the lung to collapse but it’s rare that it happens. Once the fluid is drained they’ll analyze the fluid to try and figure out what the cause is. Dad will have to go back tomorrow for another CT scan to try and determine how quickly the lungs are filling back up. Removing the fluid today may be a temporary fix. Other actions may need to be taken. The analysis of the fluid will take 48 hours. Mom seems to think dad may get to go home tonight. It may be a day or two before we find out more. His blood levels were good enough to take a treatment today but his doctor wanted to hold off until we find more out about the fluid. He's been taking treatments every two weeks when his blood levels cooperate although they've taken him off the Oxaliplatin due to the increased neuropathy in his legs and arms. He's still doing the 5FU chemo.
All in all, things have been going well. Holidays went well. Dad continues to proceed with daily life as normal as possible. He’s a little frail and still has a list of stuff that he deals with daily (vision, numbness, pain, etc), but he gets around pretty good. He’s still traveling and getting out. We went to the church wildlife supper this last weekend. We really enjoyed seeing old friends and spending the time with family.
On a side note, dad went up to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis a month or so ago and had a consultation with an oncologist working on several clinical trials. Dad qualified for 2 of the 12 Stage 1 clinical trials and is currently on a waiting list. No decisions have been made to whether or not he would do the trial if it came available. Theres a lot of variables to wade through.
Please continue to keep dad in your thoughts and prayers. I’ll let you know when I find something out.
Later,
Update: 1:00 PM
I just spoke with mom and she said dad made it through the procedure fine. They drained 2 liters of fluid from dad's lung. He's currently in X-Ray making sure they got it all. He'll be in recovery 2 to 4 hours. Mom said shes doing fine. Hopefully he'll be able to go home tonight.
