Cancer, knee surgery, hand surgery!
I know it's been forever since the last time I posted something but life has been crazy these past couple of months. BUT, but, but ... some good news .... my husband who had the Gamma Knife Surgery for two brain tumors (from the RCC which has spread) was a success. Last scan showed they are shrinking and no new ones were found! So yeahhhhhhh!!!!!
Then he just had another body scan a couple of weeks ago to see how the Sutent meds are doing for the rest of his tumors and again, yeahhhhhhhh!!!! ALL of his tumors (in both of his lungs, chest lymphnodes and adrenal gland) had significant shrinkage which isn't that common. Most of the time some of the tumors will respond to the treatment, not all of them but he's on of the lucky ones since he's gotten a total response. He's still taking the 50 mg Sutent pills. The biggest side effect is the hand and foot syndrome. This last round (he will be starting cycle 6, twee weeks on the Sutent and then 1 week off) he had a heck of at time with his feet being so so sore, red, sensitive, peeling, hurting, blistering but doc wants to keep him on the 50 mg as long as he can since he's gotten such great response to the meds. This Saturday he's starting cycle #6 and since every cycle the side effects can be different we're hoping that the hand and foot syndrome will not show up again or at least in a milder form.
So that's all the cancer news I wanted to share. Now that we have a couple of months without having to visit UVA I need to get myself fixed! I've had a knee problem since last November and it's only gotten worse so I'm having knee surgery the end of this month. It's all soft tissue repair and I'll hopefully be up and running again soon. Doc told me one week on crutches but after that I should be good to go of course it depends on what all they find they need to fix he said! Hopefully nothing more then what they already were able to determine from the MRI. We're talking minor meniscus tear, minor tendon tear, a couple of cysts and a frayed Hoffa Pad (which I had never heard of until now!). All the bones looked to be in very good shape, yeahhhhh no arthritis in my knee at least so that was some good news.
My hand is another story ... of course it's my right one so I've been a bit freaking out about needing surgery on it since I make a living being a Sign Shop artist, knitting, crocheting, sewing, etc. but this doc made me feel a lot better about getting it done a different way then the other two hand specialists were going to do it. It's arthritis of the CMC joint and a bone spur which needs to be removed. The first two were talking about removing a bone and replacing it with a tendon which kinda worried me. This doc is going to just grind down the bones and putting a metal bar in place for 4 weeks while in a cast to make more space for soft tissue to grow while healing. Metal bar will be removed and another 2 weeks in a cast then lots of physical therapy and hopefully I'll be able to continue my art jobs.
I will definitely let you all know how things will transpire in the coming months. I can type while I'm having my knee fixed. Not sure how soon I'll be able to type after the hand surgery so no promises there.
THanks for being patiently waiting for my posts everybody!
Then he just had another body scan a couple of weeks ago to see how the Sutent meds are doing for the rest of his tumors and again, yeahhhhhhhh!!!! ALL of his tumors (in both of his lungs, chest lymphnodes and adrenal gland) had significant shrinkage which isn't that common. Most of the time some of the tumors will respond to the treatment, not all of them but he's on of the lucky ones since he's gotten a total response. He's still taking the 50 mg Sutent pills. The biggest side effect is the hand and foot syndrome. This last round (he will be starting cycle 6, twee weeks on the Sutent and then 1 week off) he had a heck of at time with his feet being so so sore, red, sensitive, peeling, hurting, blistering but doc wants to keep him on the 50 mg as long as he can since he's gotten such great response to the meds. This Saturday he's starting cycle #6 and since every cycle the side effects can be different we're hoping that the hand and foot syndrome will not show up again or at least in a milder form.
So that's all the cancer news I wanted to share. Now that we have a couple of months without having to visit UVA I need to get myself fixed! I've had a knee problem since last November and it's only gotten worse so I'm having knee surgery the end of this month. It's all soft tissue repair and I'll hopefully be up and running again soon. Doc told me one week on crutches but after that I should be good to go of course it depends on what all they find they need to fix he said! Hopefully nothing more then what they already were able to determine from the MRI. We're talking minor meniscus tear, minor tendon tear, a couple of cysts and a frayed Hoffa Pad (which I had never heard of until now!). All the bones looked to be in very good shape, yeahhhhh no arthritis in my knee at least so that was some good news.
My hand is another story ... of course it's my right one so I've been a bit freaking out about needing surgery on it since I make a living being a Sign Shop artist, knitting, crocheting, sewing, etc. but this doc made me feel a lot better about getting it done a different way then the other two hand specialists were going to do it. It's arthritis of the CMC joint and a bone spur which needs to be removed. The first two were talking about removing a bone and replacing it with a tendon which kinda worried me. This doc is going to just grind down the bones and putting a metal bar in place for 4 weeks while in a cast to make more space for soft tissue to grow while healing. Metal bar will be removed and another 2 weeks in a cast then lots of physical therapy and hopefully I'll be able to continue my art jobs.
I will definitely let you all know how things will transpire in the coming months. I can type while I'm having my knee fixed. Not sure how soon I'll be able to type after the hand surgery so no promises there.
THanks for being patiently waiting for my posts everybody!
Comments
Post a Comment