ArtsieSteph's dad's cancer superthread

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ArtsieSteph said:
Basically where there is activity of cancer cells, it is brighter in the PET scan. So in this case bad.
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I really don't know what God is going to do for your dad and your family. Until recently, I would have thought that was a death sentence. Recently, because Joidevevre had that too. Well, they found cancer in all her lymph nodes on her neck. She chose to fight. It wasn't pretty. (I'd go into more detail, but I don't have her permission to do so, so I won't.) Now she doesn't!

She got the "all clear" a few months ago.
 
I have been asking God to heal her dad and though I know Stephanie would not want it I found myself so desperate for his healing that last night in my desperation I pleaded with him to either take the cancer upon himself just like how he took our sin and iniquities on the cross or let me take his cancer. My prayers have never been able to allow healing and I have asked often for several people but I just didn't know what else to do
 
So here is basically the thing so far: they are going to change dad's chemo to either another chemo, or a pill that makes it so that dad's actual immune system fights the cancer. There are pros and cons to both, but the only one that can truly "cure" the cancer would be the immune therapy. The issue is, the immune therapy that they have planned is only available if my dad does another line of chemo first, because insurance is weird and doesn't let you have the pills first. I think it's dumb but whatever.

It's one of those things where I honestly and truly don't know what the best line of therapy is, but the Lord does. So just pray we have wisdom, the doctors have wisdom (including the one that we are going to for a second opinion at Mayo), and daddy can bear whatever it is he needs to get done.
 
Blain said:
I have been asking God to heal her dad and though I know Stephanie would not want it I found myself so desperate for his healing that last night in my desperation I pleaded with him to either take the cancer upon himself just like how he took our sin and iniquities on the cross or let me take his cancer. My prayers have never been able to allow healing and I have asked often for several people but I just didn't know what else to do
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It is simply best to pray for God's will to be done in this matter, regardless of whether her dad is healed in this lifetime or at a time and place of His choosing.
 
tourist said:
It is simply best to pray for God's will to be done in this matter, regardless of whether her dad is healed in this lifetime or at a time and place of His choosing.
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Exactly. Exactly. I praise God because He has truly given me a sense of joy that, if He does take daddy home, then that's what's happening. Daddy will be HOME. With Jesus. With all the saints including my grandpa who daddy lost when I was 1 year of age. The only thing I don't want is for daddy to be in languishing physical pain. And I pray God doesn't put him through that. But if He does, that God gives him strength to be like Job. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
 
Dr. Tan, who is the cancer treatment center oncologist, said that dad should go onto another chemo called Ceramsol along with another drug called Taxel. Basically, a new chemo. The immune therapy that dad had been watching, keitruda, has now been approved by the FDA but can only be used if 2 other treatments haven't worked. So far dad has done 16 rounds of 1 treatment. What we were hoping to do was to maybe go to the Mayo clinic for a second opinion, to figure out what other options there were. The option that the Mayo doctor said was skip the next chemo all together and just go straight to a clinical trial that is using immune therapy for stomach cancer. Dad seems more keen on this option.


At this point, we're gonna go back to Tan and see what he thinks of the new plan.
 
Mayo is an excellent clinic, sweetie. :) Daddy will get good care there..


ArtsieSteph said:
So here is basically the thing so far: they are going to change dad's chemo to either another chemo, or a pill that makes it so that dad's actual immune system fights the cancer. There are pros and cons to both, but the only one that can truly "cure" the cancer would be the immune therapy. The issue is, the immune therapy that they have planned is only available if my dad does another line of chemo first, because insurance is weird and doesn't let you have the pills first. I think it's dumb but whatever.

It's one of those things where I honestly and truly don't know what the best line of therapy is, but the Lord does. So just pray we have wisdom, the doctors have wisdom (including the one that we are going to for a second opinion at Mayo), and daddy can bear whatever it is he needs to get done.
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Well, I sadly have not so fun news. Daddy just got an email that the trial he was gonna be in has filled up. It's sadly possible that it was near full before we even got to Mayo. So at this point we may be having daddy do the new chemo.

He he is taking it very hard. He doesn't want to go to church I don't think but I feel he needs to in order to get strenth. At this point I can't say anything to console him either.
 
ArtsieSteph said:
Well, I sadly have not so fun news. Daddy just got an email that the trial he was gonna be in has filled up. It's sadly possible that it was near full before we even got to Mayo. So at this point we may be having daddy do the new chemo.

He he is taking it very hard. He doesn't want to go to church I don't think but I feel he needs to in order to get strenth. At this point I can't say anything to console him either.
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I see.... Maybe it's for the best I mean God allows everything for a reason right? And often times he gives us what we need not what we want or think we need right? I think going to church is a very healthy idea, it is not good to struggle by yourself when you have a whole family of believers there for you.
 
Oh yeah, God knows exactly all that is happening. It could be that they trials wouldn't have worked, that the certain kind of immune therapy they were testing would have made dad's immune system attack itself, etc.

It's more about things not going to plan, and. Being afraid of what we don't know. Things like that.
 
When I had the option of treatment and choose traditional rather than test the Lord gave me a song I would sing along with every chance I could and still do to this day.

Crowder.....I am......give a listen Steph.

Trust in the Lord my young saint....again I say trust.
 
pottersclay said:
When I had the option of treatment and choose traditional rather than test the Lord gave me a song I would sing along with every chance I could and still do to this day.

Crowder.....I am......give a listen Steph.

Trust in the Lord my young saint....again I say trust.
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Indeed:) [video=youtube;mw4ES27w3oU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw4ES27w3oU[/video]
 
ArtsieSteph said:
Well, I sadly have not so fun news. Daddy just got an email that the trial he was gonna be in has filled up. It's sadly possible that it was near full before we even got to Mayo. So at this point we may be having daddy do the new chemo.

He he is taking it very hard. He doesn't want to go to church I don't think but I feel he needs to in order to get strenth. At this point I can't say anything to console him either.
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I was just talking about this kind of thing with a friend going through this kind of thing.

Back when John was in the hospital, very few things came easily. (Actually, I can't remember a single thing going easily, but I'm an optimist, so think I'm probably forgetting what did. lol) Like he needed a special wheelchair because he couldn't sit up on his own power yet, but it took four weeks before the wheelchair got there. (And he could sit by then, but the wheelchair was too big for him to work easily.) And his Hemoglobin kept going down to levels that said he was living on half the blood most people live on, so he was really weak, but the social worker telling us they were sending him home said not to worry. If they go down again, just bring him back to the hospital. (Yo! First, how do I know they go down without a blood test, and second how do I pick up a 250 pound man to take him to the hospital? Yeesh!)

It was a real mess. And very frustrating.

BUT, I've since figured out what all that mess was about. Timing! If they didn't keep coming up with a whole bunch of dumb ideas to test him on why his blood levels kept dropping, (and in the end, they knew why. Even I knew why -- he was on FOUR blood thinners, so blood literally seep out of his veins constantly), he would have gone home too early, and probably died, (because I still can't lift a 250 pound man or know when that kind of tired meant blood levels were done.)

So, yeah. Your dad gets another round of chemo, and chemo sucks. BUT timing is everything. The chemo is shrinking the cancer, or, at least, making sure it's not growing drastically. And when this round is done, he's eligible for the next thing. And God has plans for that next thing to happen then.

This is what God does! So.... right on schedule!
 
Definitely right Depleted. Like you said, dad has happened to find out that the medicine he wanted to get approved, got approved. And the thing is too that if he has a bad reaction to this chemo, then it will be straight to the next one, which is the medicine we wanted in the first place. And his insurance will pay for it all.

There are so many things to be thankful for, sadly it's just all the detours suddenly make things a little worrisome sometimes.
 
So things are flux again. We have a possible trial daddy can go to, but they need to do a biopsy first of his tumor. They're gonna ask the cancer treatment center for it first, and then maybe take a fresh one. While this is going on, dad has Dr. Tan on kind of a "we may be doing chemo but we may not" string which makes me nervous.

And hilariously through all of this dad is getting more and more strength back, so he has been doing a bunch of stuff. He says it makes him feel accomplished and also helps him sleep at night because he's tired from all the physical exertion. So yay....I guess?
 
HUEAGH.

Ok.

According to my dad the current final FINAL plan of things is that dad has a chemo on Wednesday -the ceramsa and taxol- which has a possibility of reactions on infusion. Like possible allergic reaction. Basically this dose is gonna be a test dose and if he doesn't react or has a minor reaction he's gonna be on that. While that is going on, we'll be waiting for a clinical trial.

I am very scared because I thought we were having a long term break but I guess not. But that makes sense gotta fight this while we have the tools. I'm just maybe getting tired of things changing.
 
This morning daddy sat us down and said he was feeling gassy and full, the same way he felt when he first started really noticing the signs of his tumor. Basically meaning it's growing back VERY quickly, and I'm super scared. I been crying all morning. I seem to have calmed down for the most part but this basically means another paridime shift.

Now he may be back to soft solids and liquids. It's like for some reason I'm freaked out
 
ArtsieSteph said:
This morning daddy sat us down and said he was feeling gassy and full, the same way he felt when he first started really noticing the signs of his tumor. Basically meaning it's growing back VERY quickly, and I'm super scared. I been crying all morning. I seem to have calmed down for the most part but this basically means another paridime shift.

Now he may be back to soft solids and liquids. It's like for some reason I'm freaked out
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"For some reason" - because it's worth a good freak out. (Also good to know when a freak out is well deserved.)

Just don't get too full of it yet. I can think of another reason he feels gassy and full. (I have IBS-C, which is constipation most of the time. And, I often feel gassy and full. Welll, the gassy goes beyond a mere feeling, but you know.) Bridge isn't here yet. You're still walking to it. You're now close enough to see the bridge, and it looks very much like Here-we-go-again bridge, but you aren't positive yet, until you get there.

Add to that, tomorrow is Wednesday, so he tries something new to see if he can handle new-idea. He isn't where he was before. The last time he was at this spot, they had to run tests to see what the problem is, and then come up with a plan. The problem has already been named, and the plan starts tomorrow. You've eliminated two steps he had to take the last time, so he's quicker on schedule this time.
 
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