Wednesday, January 26, 2011

No Glow for Matt (Which is GOOD)

Got the call today: Yippee skippy! Matt's one year PET scan results are in and news is great: there are no hot spots/glow areas at all - phew!

One year, and probably the most important year, DOWN. Can you say "yeah."

Also, FYI and in case you care - we went to a really interesting, good workshop on neuropathy last week, learning more about the many different kinds and why it is so hard to diagnose and treat. In the scheme of things I think Matt is now feeling a little better about his - it could be worse...and the medications DO help. They had a dr. there who was touting cold laser therapy and it seemed like it might be something to try on Matt's feet...Hmmm....We will have to see.

More later!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Jan. 14: New Year Update

Good heavens - we haven't updated the blog since Thanksgiving?! What's with that? It's time, it's time; especially as yesterday was the one year anniversary of the beginning of radiation. Monday will mark the one year anniversary of the start of chemotherapy....

We don't have much "news" to report, which is good and bad. I guess the two biggish updates are (1) Matt will have the all-important one year PET scan next Friday (Jan. 21), and (2) he continues to struggle with severe neuropathy and the pain and restrictions it brings.

Obviously since he hasn't had the PET scan yet (and then we meet with Dr. Doogie the first week in Feb.) there isn't much more to be said for that. This is the one where he gets injected with a special dye, that interacts with cells which are rapidly dividing (e.g. cancer). The goal is NOT to glow!

Around the neuropathy: Matt has been officially diagnosed with severe or hyper sensitivity neuropathy (that's not the official term of course, but Cathy's version; I'll ask Matt to write down the official term and re-post) and it continues to both frustrate and slow him down considerably. He has talked to a variety of doctors to try to get more data on this form of neuropathy (Cisplatin or platinum-induced) and possibly prognosis, treatments, etc. but hasn't been able to get anywhere. We are holding out hope the Mayo will come through - he has written letters to Dr. M, the medical oncologist there whom we saw, but haven't heard anything yet....

He continues to work part time - thanks to StreetFleets flexibility! It is very clear that when he exerts himself, or gets stressed, that his body/nerves react and it can be very painful. The other reality is to remember he is still only 9 months out from the end of treatment(s) and we were told recuperating could/would take up to a year and a half. We were talking about the neuropathy yesterday: it's like a very vigilant/ongoing bio-feedback system! Good and bad...We really are second-guessing that chemotherapy but there is no going back now.

That's it for us for the moment - more after the PET scan!