Not Sure What's Going On....

I wrote in recently regarding the fact that my dad was suffering from these terrible hiccups.  The only thing that seemed to help somewhat was doubling the dose of his Thorazine. Tonight he was re-admitted to the hospital because in addition to the hiccupps, now he is throwing up undigested food.  Until this point my dad has not been affected by eating but something has changed.  They admitted him to see what is going on.  Tonight they are doing x-rays to see if there is a blockage.  Does anyone know if the tumor can shift around causing intermittent blockage of food at times?  Also, his blood counts did not return after this last round of chemo as they should have so he is going to have a transfusion as well.  We are hoping this doesn't mean that the cancer is spreading even though he's on chemo. 

Thanks for listening and god bless to all that are having to endure this terrible disease,

Lila.

On 2/25/2008 lippygirl wrote:

lila...my goodness. i hope that all is ok and your dad will be at home recovering soon. i have no thoughts or ideas on this one. but i just wanted to let you know that i am thinking of you and your family. keep me posted. take care, kris

Thanks ever so much for your ongoing care and support Kris.  Sometimes it just takes a kind person to share a few words of support, as you did, to get you through the night.  The update this morning is that the xrays they did didn't show anything, which is good news in the respect that at least the tumor in his stomach didn't grow really large, BUT now we found out that my dad is actively bleeding again and requiried 2 units blood transfusion last night and this morning since his Hemoglobin is dropping rapidly.  The plan today is the GI docs are going to perform an endoscopy to see exactly what is going on with his digestive process and also see where he is actively bleeding.  My mom asked the doctor for an educated guess on what's going on and he thought that it is possible that my dad is bleeding due to all of the irritation from the hiccups and throwing up but he is not sure and said we have to wait for the results of the endoscopy.  They temporarily stopped the Xeloda to gie his stomach a break while they work on getting him stable.  Thanks again for your concern and I hope and pray that you and your family are well.

Lila.

Good news Kris!!!

They did the scope yesterday and determined that there is NO blockage and NO active bleeding anywhere and what is happening is that there is considerable inflammation and erosion of the esophagus and stomach so they are doubling his dose of Nexium and Reglan and going to try and advance his diet over the next couple of days.  They are not sure what is causing the irritation BUT we are just sooooo---relieved that it wasn't a blockage as we had feared that the cancer was spreading up the esophagus.  Right before the scope, I was talking with my dad on the phone and he was telling me where he wanted to get buried!! 

In addition, the Dr. who did the scope was the same doc who did it before when they first found the cancer in my dad's stomach and he told us the the tumor has shrunk significantly and he was shcked so that means that the chemo is working.  We don't know what the future holds for my father and this aweful disease but we are just so happy to be in this moment and that he is STILL IN THE GAME.

God bless,

Lila.