Mondays can be rough

Mondays can be rough sometimes. I received a call at work today from my oncologist. Results from the MRI of my head I received last week were ready. They found more cancer on my brain. The new spots are still small in size but they were definitely not there in previous scans. Given the small size the doctors are not inclined to start any new treatments right away, they want to continue to monitor them for a while, and if they continue to grow, then start some new radiation treatments. I have another MRI scheduled for two months from now. So we will have to wait a while for the next update.
Monica called a few minutes later to tell me that her new car was just run over by a big truck in the parking lot. The truck basically drove of the front of the car, ripped off the bumper and and spilled the front end all over the ground. The car is now in the auto-body shop getting repaired. Monica had a rough day too. I think we'll all go to bed early tonight. Take care. -Eric

Thoracentesis

Went into the hospital yesterday for the thoracentesis procedure. I had to check in at noon, the procedure started at 2:30, took about 30 minutes and we finally left the hospital at 5:30. A long day for a pretty short procedure. I was a little nervous about it all, I pictured a huge needle being jammed into my chest and puncturing a lung. But all went well. It was relatively painless and quick. They extracted a full liter of fluids from my left side. The fluid was the color of a light beer, it even had a foamy head on it. They said that there is probably a liter or more left in there, but there are risks with taking out too much at once so they stopped at one liter. We can always go back in and take out more at a later time. I felt an immediate improvement. It was like someone took a clamp off of my chest. I can breath better, I have more energy. I can put my pants on in the morning without feeling like I need to pass out. What more can a guy ask for. -Eric

Thoracentesis.html

New stuff

So a week ago I found blood in my urine. A little freaky since you're not supposed to have blood in your urine. This coupled with some recent stomach pains led me to call the doctor and find out what to do. He recommend moving up my scheduled scans by three weeks so we could further investigate. We did a full CT scan from neck to knees. The scan did not show anything in the pelvic area where we thought there might be issues, and I have not seen any additional blood since the first occurrence, so good news, but we don't know what caused the occurrence the first time. The scan also showed some small shrinkage in the cancer in my lungs, nothing significant, but smaller is better than bigger. The scan also showed a significant increase in fluids in my chest. These fluids can be created by movement of the cancer cells. The increase in fluids puts pressure on the lungs and makes it difficult to breath causing shortness of breath. I have been experiencing shortness of breath, so no surprise that we found this. The procedure to remove these excess fluids is called "Thoracentesis", and basically involves jamming a large needle into the space between the ribs and the lungs and extracting the extra fluids. The doctor said there could be as much as 3 liters of fluids in there. Removing these fluids would relieve the pressure on my lungs and improve my ability to breath. Long story short, I am getting this procedure done on Wednesday afternoon. It is an outpatient procedure and requires only a local anesthetic for the pain. You can find more information on this procedure at this link:

http://health.stateuniversity.com/pages/1511/Thoracentesis.html

Wish me luck. -Eric