Ira Mitchell

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April 23rd Ira thought he was having a heart attack so he and Elaine decided to go to the ER. Ira was admitted to Regions because of his intense shoulder and back pain but after an EKG and blood work they found he was not having a heart attack but that his blood work was off. They found his hemoglobin was low and his white blood cell count was high. After completing a lot of tests they also found he had a bleed in his stomach. He had a few units of blood and his bleed was cauterize. He stayed at Regions for a few nights then was discharged April 27th. He was scheduled to see his MD and have follow up blood work.
After discharge they did find out he had a polyp in his intestine that was biopsied and ruled benign. He was scheduled to have it removed though. He was scheduled for a CT scan where lesions on his liver and kidney were discovered. His blood work was still off and answers were difficult to come by.
During this time Ira was still not feeling well and ended up with the hiccups. His hiccups kept going for 4 days, he was getting progressively weaker and his appetite was diminished.
On June 2nd Ira and Elaine went back to the ER but this time to Woodwinds. After many tests he was admitted. On June 3rd in the afternoon, he had a cardiac arrest. The nurses and doctors acted quickly and were able to revive him after a few minutes.
He went through the weekend without much improvement. He was scheduled for a liver biopsy on June 7th but his white count was too high as well as his INR was elevated.
The Oncologist came to see him and did an exam. His concern was an underlying infection and ordered IV antibiotics. After the first dose of antibiotics both his white count and INR numbers improved to allow him to be able to have the liver biopsy.
He is now on 3 different IV antibiotics and has started feeling better. His appetite has returned and he is slowing starting to eat again.
Today, June 10th we received the results of the liver biopsy. It seems he did have an infection but that is only half the problem as the biopsy came back positive for liver cancer.
The cancer in his liver is not the origin source of the cancer so we now have a Gastroenterologist involved who will be repeating the endoscopy and abdominal MRI. They are looking for stomach or pancreatic cancer and need to know the origin source to move forward with a treatment plan.
Per the oncologist they will not put him through chemo or radiation as it isn’t curable. But depending on test results we are hoping there will be options of immunotherapy or targeted therapy to slow the progress and add more time.

As we continue to receive more information and come up with plan we will add updates.

Please keep Ira & Elaine in your thoughts and prayers.

Quality of Ira’s life is the priority.