What a difference a week makes! Or....what is reality?
Last Monday at our Sloan consult Laurie was told that it seemed there was still active cancer in the innermost part of her tumor. She proceeded to go home and vomit up blood, be taken by ambulance to NY Hospital with an upper g.i. bleed, and come home after 4 days to spend the long holiday weekend zonked out cycling through pain/nausea meds and sleep with no energy and a crushed spirit.
Today the roller coaster zoomed right up. We met with Dr. Watkins, the surgeon who operated on Laurie with the nanoknife in Stony Brook. His take is that the pain and suffering Laurie has been experiencing currently and since the operation on 4/4 is post surgical and not cancer. He saw no evidence of the spread of cancer and, in fact, he believes the entire tumor is dying spontaneously---liquefying and draining off and creating an air caviity---thus causing Laurie's pain and digestive issues. Although it is possible that this could naturally resolve, Dr. Watkins prescribed an anti-biotic and will also probably schedule an endoscopic ultrasound in a couple of weeks to check on the air cavity and attend to it further then if needed.
Coincidentally, Laurie's energy seems to have come back at least slightly today, too. Upon arriving back into Manhattan, she insisted I drop her off rather than drive her to do an errand. After spending the last few weeks either in the hospital attached to i.v.s or curled up in bed in pain or asleep with torturous food network t.v. shows (my opinion) persistently playing in the background, her insistence on being dropped off showed shades of the Laurie we all know and (some of us) love.
Of course it is only one day and one MD's opinion (Whoever said medicine was an exact science?), but in the path Laurie has chosen, his voice and opinion are important, and let's hope he is in fact right!
As always, thanks for all the caring and support of all of you out there. It continues to mean so much.
with love,
Last Monday at our Sloan consult Laurie was told that it seemed there was still active cancer in the innermost part of her tumor. She proceeded to go home and vomit up blood, be taken by ambulance to NY Hospital with an upper g.i. bleed, and come home after 4 days to spend the long holiday weekend zonked out cycling through pain/nausea meds and sleep with no energy and a crushed spirit.
Today the roller coaster zoomed right up. We met with Dr. Watkins, the surgeon who operated on Laurie with the nanoknife in Stony Brook. His take is that the pain and suffering Laurie has been experiencing currently and since the operation on 4/4 is post surgical and not cancer. He saw no evidence of the spread of cancer and, in fact, he believes the entire tumor is dying spontaneously---liquefying and draining off and creating an air caviity---thus causing Laurie's pain and digestive issues. Although it is possible that this could naturally resolve, Dr. Watkins prescribed an anti-biotic and will also probably schedule an endoscopic ultrasound in a couple of weeks to check on the air cavity and attend to it further then if needed.
Coincidentally, Laurie's energy seems to have come back at least slightly today, too. Upon arriving back into Manhattan, she insisted I drop her off rather than drive her to do an errand. After spending the last few weeks either in the hospital attached to i.v.s or curled up in bed in pain or asleep with torturous food network t.v. shows (my opinion) persistently playing in the background, her insistence on being dropped off showed shades of the Laurie we all know and (some of us) love.
Of course it is only one day and one MD's opinion (Whoever said medicine was an exact science?), but in the path Laurie has chosen, his voice and opinion are important, and let's hope he is in fact right!
As always, thanks for all the caring and support of all of you out there. It continues to mean so much.
with love,
Neal
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