Thursday, May 19, 2005

May 19th - Quick Update

Hello.

St Agnes called Jim and told him he has the low grade PMP. Which is great news. They still want him to have the chemo, so now we are trying to find an oncologist in the Harrisburg area that is familiar with PMP. We got two recommendations from St Agnes, we just need their credentials and Jim to feel comfortable with them.

St Agnes will be sending Jim copies of the pathology final report and the list of chemo drugs that react well with his cancer. That's all we know for now. I'll update later as we learn things.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

May 18th

Hello.

Just got back from the doctor's visit. Things went very well even though they don't have the final pathology report yet (should have that tomorrow).

Jim's incision is healing so well that the hole doesn't need to be packed anymore. They've placed tape pulling both sides together and it's supposed to finish closing by itself. That's a relief, no more dressing changes...

The doctor thinks that Jim has a better than 80% chance of not having the cancer come back (will have a better idea with the pathology report). However, he does want Jim to undergo a 6-month chemotherapy treatment (which kind we should also know tomorrow). The chemo will improve Jim's odds of beating the cancer by more than 10% (so with the 80% we're looking at 90% or better). The chemo won't be started for 1-2 months. Tomorrow they should also be getting us a name of a medical onocologist near where Jim lives, who will perform the chemo treatment.

His next appointment with St Agnes will be in July after he has his CT scan done. So Jim's left with 7 more blood thinner shots (that he gives himself) and 3 more Procrit shots (to be done by his local doctor's office). He will still be taking iron supplements and multivitamins... but that's do-able.

So Jim's not done yet, but the odds are favorable that this will be the one time he needs to go through all of this. : )

I'll update tomorrow with the final pathology report result and chemo treatment.