A Visit From Dr. Chue

We are just finishing up our ususal Tuesday round of chemo. Jon is napping and it just struck me how I've come to enjoy the weird rythem of the IV machine that delivers his chemotherapy. Kinda stange?!

Jon gets the Doxil every other week and we are beginning to see a pattern where there is significantly more fatigue during his Doxil weeks than when he receives Taxol alone. He was tired from Thursday to Sunday and only got 2.5 workouts in last week (walking up and down Lakeland Hills only counts as a "half" workout in Jon's mind). He did however enjoy having a good UFC party Saturday night and the Superbowl on Sunday. His highpoint was having our grandaughter, Maelie, sit on his lap and watch the fights with him for over 20 minutes. It's rare for that girl to sit still longer than a few seconds!

All of Jons bloodcounts were on the low side today which would account for his increased fatigue. Dr. Chan tried again to sell him on the Nuepogeon to raise his white counts but no go. He's going to bump up his Nuetrophil Plus supplements which worked great last time. We are still struggling with trying to keep his red counts up since they directly affects his energy level which affects his workouts which tremendously influence his emotional state and attitude. Considering all the chemo he's had his counts are OK but I've called in all of my markers to try to find something that can do better. I know by now that the single most important thing we can do is keep his attitude positive.

Dr Chue paid us a visit today. I think he heard the rumor that Jon would like to attempt a return to Alaska in the spring. Instead of an OK we received a salespitch on a liver resection. Dr. Chue was surprisingly more in favor of the surgery than he's been in the past and, quite frankly, I think he sees it as the only true cure. He told us today that approximately 40% of colon cancer patients who have metastasis to the liver are cured with a liver resection once the chemo has killed the rest of the cancer throughout the colon. Those who aren't long term survivors extend their life on the average of 1-2 years. This is not typical protocol for pancreatic cancer patients but only because most of them don't live long enough for it to become an option. Jon and Dr. Chue are still working hard on making history!

So the plan is now to continue chemo through this cycle, rescan in April and if the scan is good consider liver resection surgery. We would also have to find a surgeon who would be willing to do it. Dr. Chue is putting his money on Dr. Precht who we saw for consultation last summer. With regard to the radiofrequency ablation, Dr. Chue is not optimisitc that the one large tumor in Jon's liver will ever shrink small enough with chemo to make that an option.