Chad and his family have decided to share his journey with all our friends and family. The amount of kindness and caring we have received since his diagnosis has been countless. The amount of thoughts, prayers, phone calls, text messages, Get Well Wishes, cards and hugs have been endless. We feel this is the best way to keep everyone informed and not leave anyone out, after all we will need lots of prayers and thoughts throughout this journey.
The end of August Chad had started feeling tired and having night sweats/fevers. After about a week, he went to his family doctor and they found his white blood count up along with liver enzymes, they put him on an antibiotic and Chad started feeling a little better. He was continuing to work everyday, and at night he would be exhausted and still have night sweats. He went back to the doctor, he was then tested for mono and that was negative. After a few more weeks of the continued nights sweats, extreme tiredness, and now abdomen tenderness, back to the doctor. This time labs were drawn along with a chest x-ray. Liver enzymes were still up but not concerning, the x-ray showed spots on his lung so a chest CT was ordered. In the meantime, he had to go back for an ultrasound of his gallbladder and liver. First impression, he had a non functioning gall bladder so we were going to find a surgeon to get that removed, but before that the radiologist wanted a CT of the abdomen/chest. The CT showed the spots on colon, liver, and lung, and at that point we knew we were dealing with cancer. That night he was admitted to the hospital, and a biopsy was done first thing the next morning on his liver.
After waiting a week for the biopsy results we found out on Friday November 10 that Chad has cancer in the colon, liver, and lung. The following Wednesday he went to Mayo for a second opinion, he was able to see an oncologist that Friday. After the oncologist reviewed Chad's records and evaluated him, they wanted to get a port with chemo started as soon as possible. They wanted it done as an outpatient status instead of inpatient, because of risk of infection. The oncologist agreed he has spots on all three organs, but wants to do further testing later (like a colonscopy etc) to assess the extent of the cancer. The doctor's main concern now is Chad's liver, his liver is not working or working minimally at most and is enlarged. His belly has become very distended, because of the large liver and fluid built up in his abdominal cavity, from the liver not working appropriately. Chad had a port put in this past Tuesday and round one of chemo on Wednesday at Mayo. He was then sent home with a chemo pump that continued to pump chemo in him for the next two days. On Friday, we disconnected the chemo pump from his port. He tolerated the chemo amazingly!!!! Chad had minimally side effects, thankfully. He gets very tired fast, but is able to at least do a few things before sitting down to take a break.
The plan for now is to do chemo at Mayo every two weeks, it will be administered the same way as last time. They did say he could do the chemo here in Sioux City after a few times at Mayo, but that will be decided later. Our first goal, is to have the chemo shrink the cancer to get Chad feeling good enough to at least get him back to work. We have high hopes this can be done, Chad is young and healthy so he should respond to chemo well!!! We know this will be a long journey with ups and downs, but for now it's one day at a time and we are prepared for the challenges ahead.
Chad will be back to Mayo December 6 for another round of chemo, and we are hoping for minimal side effects again.
As our journey continues, and we find out more information, we will continue to update his status for all our supporting friends and families!!!
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