Douglas Steel

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.  Doug was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in August 2017, he went through 8 rounds of chemo, (16 weeks).  On January 23 Doug had HIPEC which involved a long surgery to remove the tumor in his cecum, a bowel resection,  a liver resection due to the metastasis there, and then a high temperature chemotherapy that washes his abdomen for 90 minutes.   Doug resumed chemo 7 weeks after surgery.   He completed 6 rounds of this chemo.    So the tough part is that Doug began to feel very tired, weak, so short of breath at the end of June.   We had a great family vacation, he was feeling AWESOME, but when we returned it became apparent something else was going on.  Doug had another Petscan in mid July that showed the liver tumors were active again and there was now multiple metastasis to his lungs.  He has been receiving treatment @ Mercy in Baltimore, who we LOVE,  but we were referred to Hopkins & Georgetown due to the cancer being so aggressive.   We met with a doctor @ Georgetown who is PHENOMENAL and he asked Doug which was most important to him - quality vs. quantity.   Well, no one wants to hear this ever, but we appreciated his honesty.  Doug would, of course, want both, but quality was the choice.   He sent us back to Mercy for treatment there which now consists of 2 IV chemos and one oral chemo.  He has had 4 rounds of this , it has really helped alleviate the fluid build up he gets around his lungs.  The fluid caused us several trips to the ER and admissions.  We had a drain placed so the fluid can be drained at home if needed, but since the second round of chemo I haven’t had to drain it at alll!!  There is a Petscan scheduled for this coming Thursday.