Penny & Irv - May 2010

Dear Friends and Family;

I saw the surgeon today and one of the two drains was removed. It was threaded into the surgical area about 15-18"! The whole area feels a lot better after that removal. I'll see him again next Friday to remove the last drain. He said the wound is healing well, not as good as if I hadn't had radiation 10 years ago, but still not badly.

I also saw the oncologist, Dr. Kornfeld today. He ordered the Oncotype DX on the tumor tissue. Results should be available in 2.5 weeks. I have an appt. with him at that time to decide about further therapy, especially chemotherapy or not. The test determines whether chemo will not only work against the cancer, but also if it will do any good to go thru the trauma of chemo. Evidently chemo can kill the cancer, but not for the long term. I guess that is why it costs more than $4000! At least it is available now. 10 years ago no such test was available to help me decide on chemo. I decided not to do it, and of course, in hindsight, I'm not so sure it was the correct decision.

Irv sees the gastroenterologist on June 3 to pursue the autoimmune aspect of his problems. The usual treatment for autoimmune processes is steriods plus who knows? At least he definitely does not have cancer! He also has to have the stents placed in his bile ducts removed! No one mentioned that until they called to say the appt. for the surgery was scheduled for July. They don't remove heart stents. Anyway, we aren't looking forward to this, but it must be done. We hope the treatments by the new doctor will have worked and the removal of the stents won't cause the blockages to reappear.

Like I've said many times: Where is Star Trek medicine when you need it? Irv thinks we should have Abby from NCIS handle our labwork. She can solve numerous really tricky hard questions in 1/2 to 1 hour each and every week.

Irv and I are feeling much lighter of heart lately. The extremely dire outcomes have gone away. We still have to deal with my therapies, but Irv won't have to have major surgery. His repeat ERCP in July is a day surgery procedure. He did get some pancreatitis, and it was very painful, but probably less than cutting open his abdomen. If steroid drugs will alleviate his GI problems that will be really good.

We'll keep you posted.

Penny