Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Aint a that good news.....

Alright all my lovelies.. We went to see Dr. Azeem(the neurologist) today to see what, if anything can be done about Jason's sacral fractures. Well the bad news is they have to heal naturally, the good news, they have to heal naturally. So let me explain. Jason's hip bones and sacrum are not sturdy enough for any surgical intervention or hardware, the good news is that this will not hold up the treatment plan of high dose chemo and stem cell transplant. WOOHOO!!! There is a small collection of fluid located near the biopsy site that they will aspirate and take a sample of to make sure that it is not infection. They believe it just to be a collection of fluid left over from the surgery. The ct scans and Mri last week did show that the tumors are getting smaller..This means that the Radiatin treatments did a good job, now the hdc can do the clean up and hopefully make Jason disease free!!! Hopefully the aspiration will be scheduled soon, I know the transplant department is on the ball because we already had a call from them to start scheduling. The plans for the benefit are moving along so contact me on facebook or email if you want some more info. Oh also you can go to jlelliott.com to gather info as well. So finally a bit of good news, we will take it and put it in our pocket and run for it. Our friend Dave hit his six month remission mark so yeah for him and keep him in your prayers. Keep the prayers coming, Kimmy

Saturday, June 26, 2010

A big set back.....

So we went to see Dr. Tannir on Thursday. We got good news and bad news. We will do the bad news first. They have determined that at this point in time, Jason is not healthy enough to undergo the high dose chemo and stem cell transplant. The fractures in Jason's sacrum are pretty severe, he is now in a wheelchair when he is not in the house. With the transplant and everything that it entails he needs to be mobile. Any problem that he has going into the transplant is going to be exacerbated by it. So the plan is to go see the Neurologist on Wednesday the 30th to determine what steps need to be taken to stabilize Jason's sacrum. Next week he will probably go inpatient to start on Salvage Chemo therapy in attempt to help Jason's symptoms and maybe we will get lucky and it will get rid of all the cancer at the same time. The transplant is not off the table, its just on the shelf till we get Jason is better physical shape. That was a blow, but its just a detour to us.
The good news is the one day of chemo that Jason had back in May has gotten rid of all the tumors in his chest and lungs. Wahoo!!!
The benefit is planned and I will post the link to the website as soon as it is up and running. Tell everyone you think who might be interested.
Keep the prayers going and pray for my Aunt Dani too. Her kidney disease is no longer in remission and her body cannot take anymore chemo. So keep all of us in your prayers right now.
Kimmy

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Just yell timberrrrr!!! (bad joke I know)

Alright guys, so its been awhile since Ive blogged but it was relatively uneventful. We had a few nice weeks with Ronan. On the 9th he had a CT scan of his pelvis to determine if more radiation was needed and they decided it didnt. The tumors had not shrunk but were stable. To add to this though he has a S1 fracture in his sacrum with multiple tiny fractures through out the left part of his sacrum. So we went to the ortho doc and they said to put J on crutches and for us to let it heal naturally. Jason finished his radiation on June 15th. That was cool, but unfortunately things have been going kinda down hill since then. His feet and legs were swelling up and that was making it hard to walk. His mobility was getting progressively worse. Early Monday morning he fell when he stood up to get out of bed, so we were finally able to get him back in bed. (For those that dont know my husband is a BIG GUY 6ft8in 320.) There was no way I could just haul him back into bed. He said his leg just gave way. We went to the Er and they did a CT and fortunately there were no new fractures and none of the old ones were displaced. They couldnt tell about tumor growth because MRI's see that better and he was already scheduled for on Thursday. So he is now using a walker and can only walk for very short distances. If it is going to be anything more than around the house we have to use a wheel chair. We are also getting an ankle brace for him but we have to have it made because they dont stock giant and he will be starting physical therapy as well. He did have fall in the shower when we got home so now we are making the house more friendly for him. We are actually right now back at MDAnderson for his Ct of his chest and abdomen and xray of the chest as well. Tomorrow we meet with Dr. Tannir, go to the planning meeting for the benefit, then back to MDAnderson for his MRI. Well we should know alittle more about where things are heading tomorrow or atleast what are plans are next week. Keep on praying and spreading word about the benefit. I will have more details to post on that tomorrow as well. Lots of love
Kimmy

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Stem Cell Breakdown....and an update just for you Nana!!

Alright we got the rundown from the Stem Cell Transplant(SCT from here on out) doctor. His name is Dr. Nieto. Then we went to a class and things got a little confusing, but here is the breakdown as I understand it so far.
We had scans today to see if further Radiaton (XRT) is needed. If not, Jason's last day will be this Friday. If he does his last day will be the 23rd. I suppose we will know by Friday. If the XRT is not doing its job or needs a little help, Jason will undergo some chemo before the SCT that is not related to the SCT itself. Now if no further treatement of any kind (no XRT or chemo) in about two weeks to a month we will start the SCT process.
The reason Jason is having to do the Tandem High Dose Chemo with Stem Cell transplant is that Jason's Testicular Cancer is what is called Refractory. Meaning it did not respond completely to standard chemo or radiation. So we go to High Dose chemo which is much stronger. When people undergo regular chemo their counts drop but do recover in about 14 to 21 days. With High Dose Chemo if they did not give stem cells back to the patient their immune systems would never recover. So they technically call stem cell rescue.
Alright the SCT process. Jason will undergo 5 days of Chemo inpatient called TIP (Taxol, Infosimide, Cisplatin). The purpose of this chemo is called Purging and Mobilization. The purging part is to rid the blood stream and Jason's body of any random floating cancer cells. The mobilization will cause the stem cells to move out of the bone marrow(located in your hips) to the blood stream. So what is a stem cell you say? A stem cell is the "parent" cell of blood products. Meaning this stem cell turns into White blood cells (infection control), Platelets(blood clotting), and Red blood Cells (carry oxygen around the body). Once there are enough stem cells in his blood stream (determined by a blood test) they will then proceed to the collection process.
Jason will have a Central Venous Catheter (CVC) put in under his collar bone and his PICC Line(from his arm)removed. They will hook him up to an apheresis machine. This machine will take the blood from him , spin it causing the parts of blood to separate. Collect the stem cells and put everything else back into him. They want at a minimum 10million cells. He will probably collect 2 days. I believe the collection will be outpatient, but Im not sure. After this he will be admitted to the SCT floor (theoretically). They will then do round one of his High Dose Chemo(HDC). There are 4 drugs in this first round, Gemcitibine, Taxotere, Melphalan, Carboplatin. He will get these over 5 days. They will try to control all of the side effects but we know for certain that he will get mouth and throat sores. About 2-3 days he probably wont eat or drink but they said they will control the pain. After the 5th day they will give him 2-3 rest and the they will do the SCT rescue. This constitues DAY0(they said to think of this day as his new "birth day"). Its very anticlamtic though because basically its like a drug transfusion. Jason's blood counts will plummet to nothing, they will give blood and platelet transfusions as needed. About days 10-14 they should start trendin upward. The goal is to have high enough blood counts he will be released day 21-30 post transplant. He will go home on antibiotics. He has a restricted diet as well as restricted visitors. Jason will have to go to the doctor quite often. We have about a months rest and then we go back in for round 2 of HDC.
The good thing is they will have collected enough Stem cells the first go round that we dont have to do that again . He will have 5 days of HDC this time Infosfimide, Carboplatin, and Etoposide. Then the same thing as before. Counts drop, wait for them to return, and then get discharged.
About 3 months after the second rescue Jason will have to be reimmunized with all his childhood vaccines since they will have been wiped out. I found this interesting. SO in total Jason will pobably be in the Hospital around 60 days out fo 90. He can leave his room, but he cant leave the floor to my knowledge. No fresh fruit, vegetables, or flowers. Everything has to be cooked thouroughly. And my favorite, someone has to be with him 24/7 for 30 days after he is release from each transplant.
So there you go. I think I got it all. Its a ton of information. We are getting rolling on some of the benefits stuff, so keep an eye out for it. I will let you all know if there is anything you guys can do. Jason is doing okay as he can be. He is very determined which is awesome! Ronan is great, he knows something is up and is very attached to Daddy right now. I am muddling through the best that I can. Thanks for your encouragement.Prayers needed. Kimmy

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Here's your blog

We let me begin things on a sad note, I lost a friend to testicular cancer and leukemia on Monday. Sean fought bravely for over two years. He leaves behind a beautiful young wife and unborn twins. Please pray for Sean's family and wife Karen.

Ok, lets play catch up. We went and saw Dr. Tannir on Thursday. We discussed the transplant plan and went over the radiation schedule. We will see Dr.T on June 24th to see if J goes to start the transplant process the secind week of July or he will need some chemo first.

We did have appointments with the transplant department and I will write out that whole process in another blog.

We did go to the Er yesterday because Jason started bleeding. It took them 26 hours to tell us that it was a side effect of the radiation and we should contact his clinic on Monday. Oh well at least we are all home now with Roo and our own bed. I busted a blood vessel in my finger so I am having a hard time typing. I promise to inform you all about the transplant process, it is actually fascinating. Thanks you all for being so patient about an update. Prayers welcomed. Kimmy