Back In The U.S., Back In The U.S., Back in the U.S. ER

Merry Christmas!  We hope that everyone had an amazing weekend filled with family and celebrating the birth of our Lord.  

We’d like to keep you updated with what’s going on with us.  We didn’t mention Katie’s symptoms last time, so now might be a good time to fill you in as background to where we are now (which is the ER - more on that later). 

Katie started to notice some abdominal pain and decreased appetite in late October, which set us off on a journey to find the cause.  Of course our first fear was cancer so we spoke to the oncologist, who didn’t think it looked like cancer based on her symptoms and the clear scan she had in September.  Over the next few weeks, her symptoms continued to worsen - more abdominal pain, decreased appetite, nerve pain, back pain.  The weekend after Thanksgiving, she was in a lot of pain and wasn’t able to move from the chair in the den except to go to bed or the bathroom.  We went to see a gastroenterologist, her OB, and a neurologist.  The GI doc ordered a study to see if her intestines were working properly (they were), the OB ordered an ultrasound (it was clear), and the neurologist found evidence of nerve damage and nerve pain and ordered an MRI to get a better look at her nerves and rule out recurrence of her cancer.  The MRI found “a 4.5 cm cystic mass” in her abdomen near the site of the original surgery.  With these results, the neurologist referred us back to our oncologist, who ordered a CT scan, which showed the results I mentioned last time - tumors in her abdomen, and small tumors in her lungs and liver, which is defined as Stage IV metastatic appendiceal cancer.

Since Thanksgiving, Katie has basically been unable to do much except sit in the chair in the den, and walk to the bed or the bathroom.  Her pain has continued to increase, though some of the pain meds the doctors have prescribed help some.  

We met with the surgeon, pain doc, and oncologist last week.  The surgeon said that she doesn’t recommend surgery, but she wants us to meet with a surgeon who specializes in Appendiceal cancer to confirm.   The pain doc prescribed some new pain medication, which makes her pretty sleepy and doesn’t help much.  The oncologist wanted her to start chemo on Thursday Dec 29 (FOLFIRI, or perhaps just the FIRI, which is irinotecan). 

Since we found out that it is cancer, Katie has been trying to eat more and get stronger in preparation for chemo.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out that way.  She has been struggling to eat, but over Christmas she hit a wall.  She’s been unable to eat many calories at all for the past few days, the pain has continued to increase, and her digestion isn’t where it needs to be.  There are other symptoms, but the net of it is that we brought her in to the ER today to get her symptoms under control and see what we can do to get her on a path to being strong enough for chemo.  As Kate said: “We have to get the symptoms of cancer under control before we can worry about the side effects from chemo”.

Thank you all so much for your prayers - please continue.  Please pray for Katie - for relief from her symptoms and for a clear path towards getting stronger so she can fight this disease.  Please pray for our children, our family who is taking care of the kids, and for me.  

We love you, and may God bless you this Christmas season.