Spent the Weekend at Huntsman Again

What a wicked disease Cancer is! Saturday night Bruce was having trouble breathing. His oxygen level was low even after trying his nebulizer a couple of times so we took him to the hospital to see if we could get some oxygen for him. After a ride in an ambulance from Alta View Hospital to Huntsman he was admitted to the hospital and spent Saturday and Sunday night there. They have run multiple tests and have been unable to determine a cause for the breathing problem other than his asthma. It's not bad enough that he has lung cancer but the asthma is definitely making it more complicated. A CT scan has shown that the cancer has not grown but has slightly decreased in size. It is not enough of a decrease to look at it as a response to the immunotherapy but we were glad to hear that the cancer has not grown. He does have some fluid around his heart which is not good. When we talk to the doctor today we will be discussing his nutrition (we think he needs a pick line to get proper nutrition to help with his weakness and swelling limbs), his interesting visual images, and his inability to keep food down at times. Fun fun fun. NOT! Love to you all.we so appreciate your fasting and prayers.

The Cancer is Growing

We saw the Doc on Monday and the cancer is growing again. That is why he is having so much pain and discomfort.
So what is the plan? He will start immunology on Friday. This is the new drug that was recently approved by the FDA. This drug helps the body to recognize the cancer cells as foreign cells so that the body will kill them on its own. It is the next and most promising thing available in cancer treatment. The doctor said it is the new wave of cancer treatment and will become the preferred treatment for cancer in the future. This type of drug is why the cancer specialists are starting to talk about a cure for cancer. When we asked him about the side effects of this drug he said that on the trials there were so few side effects that most people thought they were getting the placebo. That being said it is kicking in the immune system and you know what happens when your body does that. We are expecting a good result and no side effects, however. The drug is administered by infusion once ever other week:)
Bruce's airways are once again being strangled by the cancer so they are going to do a surgery tomorrow to insert a stint into his bronchia to open up the airway so that he can breathe better as it will take a couple of months for this drug to work. They are hopefully doing the stint tomorrow morning. We would appreciate your prayers specifically for an easy and effective surgery and that the new drug will work the way it is supposed to so that Bruce can have more time with us. We love and appreciate you all. We are especially grateful to the Lord for his hand and for the knowledge we have specifically as to our purpose here on the earth and the plan of salvation.

Tough week

Bruce has had a really hard week. He has been very sick and unable to eat much of anything. He throws most things up shortly after he eats them. He has a lot of headaches, his stomach is killing him, he has a cough, backache and his chest muscles hurt from coughing. All of these things can be a side effect of the chemo drug or they can be from the cancer. We just won't know until we see the Doctor on Monday. 2 more days to wait. He has gone off the chemo therapy drug for now and won't go back on for a while if at all. They may have to try a new line of treatment we will see about that on Monday. Thank you so much for your faith and prayers!

What a roller coaster!

We have some real worries about Bruce right now. He is coughing a lot and a new lump has appeared on his neck/shoulder. It could be a lymph node and we are hoping it is not another cancer. We saw the Doctor on Monday and he wants to do a CT scan on Monday to determine what is going on.  He said if the targeted therapy has stopped working he doesn't want him to continue and have to deal with the side effects. For sure! The side effects are pretty brutal. We will not see the Doc until the following Monday so we won't know the outcome until then. This is such a horrible illness! It is not easy for either of us, but then life was not supposed to be easy was it. Please continue to remember Bruce in your prayers.

Living with Cancer

We are in the stage of cancer treatment where we are learning to live with the side effects of cancer. Since Bruce started targeted therapy they have had to lower the dose twice. He felt so nauseous and fatigued that he could barely function. Daily hygiene and eating what little he could were a real effort. Finally he is at a dose that seems to be better. He can get out of the house once or twice a day which is really good comparably. We have been to dinner and to run a couple of errands (yahoo)!

He still has trouble with food due to the radiation. Nothing tastes good to him. Well almost nothing, he loves Ruby Red grapefruit juice and grapefruit (really?) He lives on eggs, soup (creamy mostly and I stack on the calories) and a few other things. He can't eat sugar it is just too sweet for him. (Crap that means I eat all of the sweets in the house and the creamy soups and high calorie foods:() It is really hard to find things he can eat. We rarely eat out because he has a hard time eating well except Chic fil a. Seriously did you know that a small bowl has only 130 calories and the salad barely anything? How is he going to gain weight on that? He can't believe he is looking for ways to gain weight:)

He has been having headaches which we worried about because of the brain cancer.  I finally got him to email the Doc. He wanted him to have a MRI on his brain just to be sure that everything was alright. Worry, worry, then the scan yesterday. The Drs office called in the afternoon to let us know that there was no cancer in his brain. Yahoo! I guess the headache is just a side effect of the meds. It is manageable with Tylenol, thankfully.

Also he has been coughing a lot. This is worrisome for me but Bruce keeps telling me it is a side effect of the med. We'll let the Dr. know at our next visit and see if there is something he can do to suppress it. Sleeping is hard for both of us when he is coughing so much.

Bruce's hair is finally growing back! I even had to trim off a few stragglers the other day. Right now it is thin and fine but will thicken with time. He is grateful for that. 

We have had lots of family here for the month of July which was awesome. Chad finally moved back to Utah (hip hip hooray), Jen came with 4 of her children to visit, and Jared came with his family for a couple of days too. We had a blast! Cousins sleepovers, and parties galore! So much fun. Our house looked like a child hotel and it was fantastic!

We are grateful for all of your prayers in our behalf. We know Bruce is alive because of them! We are so grateful for the knowledge that we have. We are grateful for the miracle of modern science, we know that it is a gift from our Father in Heaven.  

Hospital again

Just an update. Bruce is in the hospital. He has been having some really severe knee pain now for a little over a week. We finally went to the ER on Saturday last but they couldn't find a cause. We had our regular appointment with the oncologist on Tuesday and he was concerned both about the knee and about a couple of other things. He wanted to admit him to the hospital so that we can get to the bottom of these issues and get him feeling better. They have drained 15 cc's of fluid from his knee and are running tests on it. So far there is nothing conclusive. 

The good new is that the Cancer looks great! It is in some places the same as it was the last scan, remember the cancer was reduced by 75% last time, and in others decreased in size. That doesn't sound great but it is really good in this aggressive Cancer. 

They have had to reduce the dosage because of the side effects so hopefully things will continue to improve.

While in the hospital we are learning about new meds that are effective in controlling nausea. if u need to try out new meds the hospital is the best p,ace to do it.

Life has definitely changed big time for us! Some days are super hard others are better. We love u all!

Side Effects

The chemo drug that Bruce is taking to target his mutations is called Tafinlar. While it is quite a miracle drug it is not without its side effects. Since Bruce seems to do things in a big way he has almost all of the common side effects and one of the uncommon ones. The common side effects are nausea, fatigue, weakness, alopecia, cough, neuropathy in the feet, and warts,  just to name a few. This week we have been dealing with the uncommon side effect that he has which is squamous cell skin cancers. He broke out in a rash on his back first, we just treated it with some polysporin and it went away but then broke out on another spot. Then one morning he was broken out all over his chest. Turns out it is squamous cell skin cancers, lots of them. He had 2 removed today by his regular dermatologist then we went to Huntsman to see the oncology dermatologist.
Can I just say Huntsman is an amazing place. The people are so nice, concerned and they take time for their patients. It is really a fantastic facility and we are so impressed with the quality of care. Thank you Jon Huntsman!

The PA that works with Dr Akerley is amazing and she got us in to see the oncology derm today!

Anyway the squamous cell skin cancers will probably take care of themselves since they are superficial but it was a little scary to think that he might have to have them all burned off,  ouch!

We are again so grateful for the miracle of modern science! Thank you Heavenly Father! Thank you Drs that dedicate their lives to finding treatments and cures for Cancer.