David’s Story

Site created on January 3, 2020

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.

A lot happened in a very short period of time so I will try to make dad's story shorter than my Facebook posts!

As most of you know David was transferred to St. Cloud Hospital for a possible heart attack early in the morning on Friday, December 6th, 2019.   St. Cloud decided to do a CT scan to check for a blood clot in his lungs.  The CT showed several nodules, some which were very large.  They decided all cardiac stuff needed to be put on hold until they could do a biopsy.  Before doing a biopsy they decided they needed some additional scans.  They did an abdominal CT, bone density scan and MRI of his brain.  The abdominal CT came back showing several spots on his liver.  They also noted that his aorta was "unhealthy".  The bone density scan and brain MRI came back normal for his age.  They decided to do a biopsy on his liver which is more safe than doing a biopsy on his lungs. 

Unfortunately the biopsy results came back as "Metastatic Adenocarcinoma consistent with lung primary".  Lung cancer that metastasized to the liver.   Because it is both lungs and liver it is considered stage 4.  This was definitely devastating news for the entire family!  Dad was sent to see a cancer doctor at the Coborn Cancer Center in St. Cloud.  Dr. Alkhatib did explain to dad that although there is no cure for his cancer (dad will never be able to say he is cancer free) because there are so many spots (both lungs, the lymph nodes in his lungs and his liver) however, treatments have come a long way and many people have positive results and live for many years.  So, we will just stay positive that the chemo will shrink the spots or at least keep them from growing or spreading.  He will have 4 chemo treatments followed by maintenance treatments.  They will do a scan after 2 treatments to see how he is responding.  His treatments are set for every 3 weeks with the first one originally set up for December 26th.  We had to change the date of his first treatment because insurance had not come back with the preauthorization.  We then planned to do January 2nd, 2020, however, he has new insurance as of the first of the year and we will need to start the preauthorization process all over.  So, his first treatment is now scheduled for January 9th as long as we hear back from insurance (fingers crossed)!  If they do not hear back, we will have to reschedule for the 16th.  His chemo port was placed on December 27th.  They decided they had to trim up his beard for infection control.  They told dad that he may lose his hair with the chemo treatments so dad decided he would just have mom shave it off!  My dad has had a beard for over 40 years so this was surprising but he looks great!! 

The cardiac issues and issues with his aorta still need to be addressed.  They have him on 2 blood pressure medications and we are thankful that his heart has been "happy".  No bad chest pain or breathing problems.  He will be seeing a cardiologist in Glenwood on January 14th to see if anything else has to be done for his cardiac issues.  He will be going to St. Cloud to meet with a vascular surgeon on January 15th to address the issues with his aorta.

We are thankful for everyone who has reached out with kind messages and everyone who has kept my dad and our family in your prayers.  Many people have asked how dad is doing.  He is thankful to be home and other than being tired .... He is dad!  You wouldn't look at him and think he is sick!


We will use this site to update on how things are going with his upcoming appointments. 




Newest Update

Happy Father's Day!!

Journal entry by Jodi Armstrong —

Time for an update (it's been awhile)!!

Dad had an appointment on May 6th with Dr. Alkhatib at which time he was told that they found 2 new masses by his kidneys that were approximately 1" and had not been seen on his previous scans.  Mom questioned if it was for sure cancer and was told it was but that they didn't know what kind.  Because of the location of the spots, they ordered an ultrasound.  They need to make sure they wouldn't need to put a stent in dad's kidneys due to some blockage.  They said they would be doing another scan in 6 to 8 weeks to check the new spots for growth.  This was hard news to hear.  He has been doing so good.  There were lots of tears 😪  We decided not to put an update on this site until we had more information.

On May 20th we met with Dr. Alkhatib again.  We discussed the ultrasound that was done.  It showed mild to moderate blockage of his ureter (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder).  Nothing more needs to be done at this time.  We will just watch it to see if he will eventually need a stent placed.  He then talked about doing a scan in 6 to 8 weeks to check those spots.  At that time we could order a biopsy.  My thought .... if you are saying that you know it is cancer, those spots will not do anything but possibly grow or spread, why are we waiting at all????  I see no benefit of waiting.  So, Dr. Alkhatib ordered the biopsy.  He says that once we know what kind of cancer it is, we can figure out how to treat it.  If it comes back the same as his previous cancer, we will probably use the same chemo drugs as before which would then be added to his Keytruda treatments.  If it is a different type of cancer, they may need to use different chemo medications.

Biopsy was done on June 3rd.  We met with Dr. Alkhatib on June 17th to discuss the results.  After a month of thinking dad's cancer was back ..... we got the news .... It is NOT cancer!  Dr. Alkhatib says that we can still consider him in remission!!!  The masses that were seen on the scan came back as "Non-necrotizing granulomatous Inflammation".   This just means that there is some inflammation to the lymph nodes in that area.  Why???  Don't really know for sure but thinking it could be some aggravation or scar tissue from when they did the stent in his aorta.  Honestly, I don't think any of us even cared about the "why"!!  We were all just so happy to hear that it is NOT cancer!  Again, there were lots more tears ... but this time they were HAPPY tears!!  He will have another scan in August.  They will still have to be watching those areas and make sure they do not get larger and cause a blockage with his kidneys.  Hopefully it is just inflammation that resolves on its own!  🤞

SO thankful to get this news and all be able to be together to celebrate on Father's Day!!  Again, we would like to thank all of our family, friends and everyone who has continued to pray for my dad.  God is Good!!  I always feel very grateful, thankful and blessed for the amount of people who think about him and ask about him all the time.  He has so many people that care ❤️

 

Read More of the journal titled "Happy Father's Day!!"
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