First post:
Jan 29, 2018 Latest post:
Mar 27, 2018
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.
In mid-December, we were excited about Christmas and our upcoming month in Florida. During Christmas, John was experiencing some abdominal cramps and discomfort. Not thinking anything was seriously wrong, they children and I urged him to see the doctor.
Right before we left for Florida, he went to the walk-in clinic. He was told that without tests, there was no way to see if anything was going on but he should go to the emergency room in Florida if things got worse.
On January 2, as his pain was getting more severe, we made the first of 2 visits to the ER. On January 4, a CT scan identified a spot on his peritoneal membrane ( sack coving the stomach and intestines). They suspected cancer and urged us to go home for tests. So we made an appointment with his doctor for the following Monday, we packed up and headed home.
Two weeks later, after being poked, prodded and analyzed after a biopsy, PET scan, CT scans, and blood tests, it was confirmed that he has cancer in his upper abdomen which is aggressive and late stage. To expedite getting started with treatments, he had a port put in on Friday and will start chemo treatments on Monday, January 29. He will be in treatments for about 4 hours that day. He will receive the treatments every three weeks. After the first couple (or three) rounds they will do another PET scan to test results of the treatments.
His biggest discomfort at this time is the fluid that is collecting in his abdomen making it difficult to breath and increasing the pain level. We are hopeful that we can have the fluid aspirated Monday afternoon.
The next questions everyone asks is "how are we doing"? The answer is as well as can be expected with this coming out of the blue diagnosis.
The next question is always "what can we do"? Prayers, well wishes and good thoughts are what we need the most. The children ( near and far) have rallied around and are being loving, supportive, encouraging, helpful and a great distraction.
We will do out best to keep you updated as John fights hard in this battle.
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