After a rather troubling weekend following some pretty poor blood tests, I’m back on another round of chemo. Here’s the quick status update before the meds kick in and I doze off for the day.

     I’m still having problems with platelet counts. Today the oncologist  said it’s probably chemo induced and there really is no way to boost those counts. The alternative they’re hoping for is that those counts are tied to my cancer activity. Last Fall, when the tumor markers went up, the platelet counts dropped down. Their hope is if we can now get the tumor markers to go down, the platelets should go up. At this point I’m two weeks away from the last chemo, and the counts are still lower today than they were two weeks ago. So we’ll do this cycle and see what happens. Should be getting a new tumor marker count next week and 4-5 blood tests this week.

     If the counts continue to drop, I’m thinking about getting yet another opinion to be sure there is nothing else I can do. Once they get too low, a transfusion can be done, but that is only a temporary fix. Anything lower than they are now, and chemo is no longer an option, and we already know the cancer spreads when I’m off chemo. So it really is a day by day issue. Some days they start going up, other days they tank.

     Throughout this all, I’m emotionally quite drained. Things haven’t been stable since January, and everyone who knows me knows that I struggle with unknowns. Working really hard on turning the unknown into my best friend! It’s getting so familiar these days, so that shouldn’t be too hard to do. Guess I need to keep reading my own blogs on the subject, right?

     Thank you for following along. Your prayers are great, and very much needed. Couldn’t get through this without you.

– Sandy K.

PS: Day 1 on chemo this time hit me like a truck. A little unusual, so my plans this week changed from normal to “stay in bed and walk around a little” when I’m not visiting the doctor. Trying to avoid a hospital visit and transfusion. Prayers along that line are super appreciated! Will post another update after my home pump comes off on Wednesday. Blessings!

    Twelve days out from chemotherapy and feeling much more like a real person again! With me, the treatment my doctor prescribed usually leaves me very tired and somewhat depressed and withdrawn. Been fighting that with prayer, counseling, and of course the amazing support of my family. What I usually end up with is an up/down emotional ride ranging from hope to futility. Once the meds flush out of my system though, things get back to somewhat normal and thinking clearly becomes much easier.

     Last night, most of the family had an opportunity to get out and celebrate my wife’s birthday. Aaron and Sarah joined the two of us for a wonderful dinner at a new Italian restaurant in Southside Bethlehem. Awesome service and great food made for an enjoyable evening. Josh is on the Appalachian Trail (check the update on 3/10/2016) but was in civilization for the day so we got a chance to talk and catch up a bit. Anna was able to call from Georgia too. All in all it was a great day.

     Next on the agenda is a series of doctor appointments at the end of this week. I have meetings with my oncologist and primary care doctor to go over their current assessment of my condition and what plans are best for the future. We’ll be discussing how effective treatments are and what their current prognosis is.

     Thank you for your prayers through all this. I’ll post another update over the weekend sometime.

– Sandy K.

     It’s been almost a week since starting my first round of chemotherapy for 2016 (seventh round including last Fall). I have mixed feelings with this though. Yes, I am glad to be back on treatment, as based on my history, chemo appears to be the one thing my body has responded to so far in terms of knocking the cancer down. Thought we beat it in December! We try again.

     The flip side of this, however, is that we still haven’t found a strong enough non-toxic way of keeping those bad cells at bay. Last year we added a number of alternative ideas to the mix, but when chemo stopped from December to February, none of those were potent enough to compete with the cancer. Last week I had new tumor markers taken and yet another CT scan. The markers were all the way back to when I was first diagnosed, and the scan showed that tumors had returned, had grown in the pancreas and liver, and fluids were beginning to appear in my lung lining and heart. So we’re still searching for something that may possibly work long term. My doctor is still hopeful, lots of prayers are still being said, and my wife’s optimism is still unshaken. Some good fuel there.

     A few prayer requests.

     First: My cell counts are at a historic low for platelets and white counts. Friday the 11th and Monday the 14th they’ll be running blood tests to see if I’ll need a platelet transfusion or not. Please pray for my platelets to finally rebound. They’ve been on a steady decline for three months now.

     Second: With the low blood counts, they’ve had to take me off blood thinners, which leaves the clot that had formed in my leg on its own. We’re praying that doesn’t move, and no others form.

     Third: Low cell counts also mean I am at risk of bleeding. Again, prayers to get through this season without incident are appreciated.

(UPDATE: I passed the blood test on Friday 3/11. Platelets went up for the first time since January! Still low, but moving in the right direction. Finally. Next test after the weekend. UPDATE 2: Monday’s blood test (3/14) continued to rise on platelet counts again. Looks like no transfusion is needed, back on the blood thinners, less risks now, so I’m calling this an answer to prayer!)

     Fourth: We still need to find a long term solution to fight this. I can’t stay on this treatment plan forever, so we need to find something else that works for me. If a cure is out there, we’re asking God to lead us to it.

     Last: Emotionally, this has been an extremely challenging time. I waiver between hope and despair, knowing full well that hope is better. Prayer that God will keep me focused on Him would be awesome.

     Thanks again for your love and support.

– Sandy K.

After my blood test in Philadelphia on Tuesday, I was sent home again. Same problem, but a bit worse. The Center there says that my platelet counts were just too low to do chemo without causing potentially serious complications. At this point, they have no options to offer other than wait and see if my body recovers platelets again on its own. And of course, without treatment, this particular type of cancer is aggressive enough to run its course fairly quickly. Their estimate was that I’d have anywhere from three months to a year to live without treatment.

Obviously, we were not happy with that news, so we decided to check with my former oncologist again for more options.

She agreed that doing nothing would certainly mean the same, but her conclusions on why my blood counts were so low are different. Based on my past treatment history, she believes that it is the cancer itself that is consuming the platelet count, and if we hit the cancer with chemotherapy, then we should see my cell count rebound as before. Of course, she also admits that doing chemo with my current levels is something that she hasn’t done before, and carries a number of risks. So we’re left with the choice between doing nothing (which will certainly end with the cancer consuming me), or resuming treatment with the hope that as the cancer cells are killed, my blood levels will begin recovering.

How I wish there was a sure-fire option “three” to select instead, but in the absence of such a plan, we decided to take the chance and resume chemo tomorrow morning.

Friday, March 4 at 8am will be the first of many cycles of treatment. Our prayer is that God will not allow any side effects to create serious complications, and eventually I might find the successes we experienced this past December.

– Sandy K.

October – December 2015 

    It wasn’t long after getting diagnosed that my son gathered many of our friends together from work and organized a fruitful and fun way to raise money for mounting medical costs. One month before our co-workers usually organize a “No-Shave-November” (growing beards and hair as long as possible), Josh decided to add to the mix by dedicating October as “Shave4Sandy” month.

     Everyone was invited to shave off their beards, hair, or whatever by the end of October, and then spend the month of November growing everything back! We figured there would be a fair showing of participation, but never expected the final results. By the end of December, dozens of people actively participated in the shaving, and even more contributed a total of $5930 towards out-of-pocket co-pays. It was amazing!

     All of the old posts can still be found at the www.giveforward.com website if you want to read through everything that happened during those months. Just click on the link below.

https://pages.giveforward.com/medical/page-j5zm184/