Chris’s Story

Site created on September 14, 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.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Elaine Lacey

Hello all - It's been a minute since I've provided an update on Chris' condition. There's been a bit going on and we needed some time to absorb the changes.

In March, on a fairly routine visit to MEEI, Chris was having his trach changed out and his doctor was concerned about facial swelling on the right side. We were immediately sent to have a cat scan. It has turned out to be a tumor within the jawbone that is cancer.

After extensive meetings with his Spaulding team and oncology at Mass. General Hospital, we decided not to treat the cancer. The only remedy is a very long and difficult surgery, that he may not withstand. How the oncology doctor explained it to us, the surgery would be very difficult for anyone in our health state to withstand the surgery, never mind Chris'.  Zack and I thought long and hard about what to do after all the meetings. We decided to let the cancer run its course. Knowing that he may not survive the surgery and it would not improve his quality of life were the main reasons we chose this path. It was one of the most difficult decisions we have ever made. 

In June, Chris had another cat scan and it showed that the cancer is slow to grow.  The right side of his face looks a bit swollen and his lesions are growing a bit, but he doesn't appear to be in pain.

On a further note, Chris had an infection a few weeks ago. He had 104.5 fever and vomiting. After many tests, he was placed on an antibiotic for 10 days and it appears to have worked. He had a rough 4-5 days, but at this time, the infection has cleared.

We hope you are all enjoying the warm weather.

All the best,

Chris, Elaine and Zack

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