Just an Update

Exploring the Mississippi River north of Memphis on August 2

Today I started the 4th treatment cycle under my protocol. It doesn’t feel new anymore. I know nurses’ names, and I can find the back stairwell to the infusion lab at Vandy so I don’t have to ride the crowded elevators. It is starting to feel a little familiar.

My session started at 6:45am today, and if all goes as planned, we should wrap up by 3:30pm, giving us plenty of time to make it back to Memphis tonight. This is the turnaround we’ve been working toward.

In the last post I talked about patterns - about how the chemo treatments work for me, and how they make me feel for the few days after. What I didn’t get into is how I am doing health-wise beyond the experience of a cycle of chemo. How is my health and what is the doctor saying?

In short, the good news is that the doctors are pleased. My reactions to chemo and the study drugs have been relatively mild, and according to Dr. Cardin my blood work is “fantastic,” and all the numbers are trending in the right direction. These factors combined with the fact that I’m generally feeling good lead the team to believe that we are killing cancer cells.

I’m cautiously optimistic this is true. The past few weeks I’ve felt better than ever. I’ve been exercising, noticed an increase in energy and a decrease in fatigue, my appetite is strong, and I’ve even started to put back on some of the weight I lost earlier. All good indicators.

We will know definitively on August 19, when we get the next set of scans. These are the first scans since the base line scans almost two months ago. According to my team success would be no growth or shrinking the cancer. We (Olivia and I) are putting a lot on these scans. For us success is shrinking cancer cells - that’s it. If we are not doing this, we will begin looking at other options.

There are a couple of issues that we are following closely. At my last treatment I was told I was anemic. This explains the fatigue and shortness of breath I was having a couple of weeks ago. The anemia is a result of the chemo toxicity killing too many of my red blood cells. Our team decided to adjust my chemo slightly to eliminate the most toxic part of the chemo in favor of the lower, longer dose. So far it is working. As of today I’m still anemic but out of the danger zone and improving daily. The silver lining in all of this is that my last Chemo Hangover was only 2.5 days not the 4 days it had been. This is great! An extra 1 – 1.5 days in the feeling good category is a big win.

The other issue out there has been my weight loss. Pancreatic cancer is a nutrient hungry cancer. Most patients find it difficult to keep weight on, and I’ve lost 35-40lbs since all this started. Over the past few weeks I’ve changed my diet to add protein shakes and an extra meal. This week I noticed some weight gain for the first time in a long time. I’ll take it, but could really stand to gain another 15-20lbs to get my energy back. I hope that between killing cancer cells and changes to my diet we can do this over the next month or two. That’s the goal.

I’ll wrap up this post by saying again that we could not do this without our friends and family. The support we are getting from each of you that read this blog, text thoughts, send prayers, agree to go on walks with me, or share meals with our family is amazing in its thoughtfulness and compassion. Every little gesture gives our family a boost and keeps us going. Thank you for that. We will be eternally grateful.

That’s it for now but please keep your fingers crossed and send a prayer up for us and the results of the scans on August 19. We could use some good news.

Tommy

P.S. Special thanks to Perry Sponseller and John Gary who took me out on the Mississippi River to get a look at Hickman Bar (see image on main website) and to introduce me to some new and hidden beaches on the Mississippi. It was a much-needed respite on a Sunday afternoon. I felt recharged and encouraged after the trip and hope to do it again sometime soon.