Back To December 31st and Treatments Begin

DeBary, FL.

57 deg. overcast,  no wind.

Forecast = Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 73F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.


Well, lets see if I can get this all straight!!!! I'm going to go back to December 31st and try bring you up-to-date on what has happened since then.

So, lets begin!!

As I wrote in my post on December 30th, Jim had an appointment with the Oncologist, (Dr. Saferali), on the morning of the 31st to get the results of the Pet scan. Well, Jim and Linda headed over there and the news was good and bad. The good news is that the growth, (probably cancer) was all located in one part of the lung, (the inlet), and there were no other indications of any unnatural growths in the rest of his body.

Now the bad news.  From the time Jim had received the Cat scan on the 4th of December and the Pet scan on the 29th of December, the opening of the lung had closed and Jim's left lung had collapsed!! This sent up an immediate alarm and Dr Saferali said that she thought is was very important that Jim head straight over to the hospital for treatment.

So, that's what they did.

Now, you have to remember that this was New Years Eve day and there were a lot of people off for the long holiday weekend. That meant that it was hard to get people together for some of the tests that the pulmonary doctor wanted to preform. And, I might add that it was not where Jim and Linda wanted to be to bring in the New Year either. :-(

They did an electrocardiogram in the ER and then immediately put Jim on heavy antibiotics  because there is a high risk of infection in a collapsed lung. They also administered other medications to help him breathe easier. Then, on Saturday, the 2nd of Jan, Jim received an echocardiogram.

All showed no heart problems.

Monday, the 4th, they did a bronchoscopy which involved sedation and then running a scope down to his lungs where photos were taken. It was during this procedure that a biopsy was also taken and sent in for diagnosis.

Tuesday morning, Jan 5th, Dr. Ahuja, the pulmonary doctor that had been looking after Jim since he entered the hospital, and who is also the Dr. who preformed the bronchoscopy, came to the room and informed him of what she saw from the procedures. She is 99% sure it is cancer (no biopsy report yet), and showed Jim and Linda photos of the blocked area of the left lung and said that she thought that Jim could go home later in the day and should start getting radiation treatments to start shrinking the growth as soon as possible, preferably the next day.

Calls were made and an appointment was set up to see the radiation doctor, (Dr. Graham, the same doctor that gave Linda her radiation treatments) yesterday morning.  (the 6th), by 10:00 AM, they were talking to the doctor, and by about 11:00, they were finished measuring Jim and deciding on just where the treatment needed to be directed. After that, they came home for awhile and rested, only to go back to Dr. Grahams for Jim's first radiation treatment last evening at 6:15 PM.

You see, Dr. Graham also said that it was of great importance to get that tumor shrunk down to get air entering and exiting the lung as soon as possible to head off  a possible problem of the lung not wanting to start working on it's own again, which could be the case if it was blocked off for too long.

This morning, (the 7th), Jim will go back in for another radiation treatment and will continue getting treatments 5 days a week for the next, 5 to 7 weeks. (I can't remember just how long the doctor said). During this time, Jim will also see Dr. Saferali and get started on once a week chemo treatments. That means that for quite awhile he'll be doing both radiation and chemo at the same time.

It won't be easy and I'm sure it'll take a lot out of Jim, but because he's very healthy otherwise, the outlook is good. Dr. Graham also said that Jim has a good chance of full recovery, but as many of you know, cancer is a very hard thing to completely eradicate.

Jim and Linda both have very strong hopes and believe that this is just another one of those large bumps in the road that one has to go over. And besides, we still have places to go and things to do before hanging up those RV keys. ;-)

I don't know how much I'll be posting, but I'll try to keep all of you informed of anything important happening.

Jim also wants to thank all of you that have already called, e-mailed or commented. It really means a lot to know that so many of you out there are thinking and praying for his full recovery.

A Quote to Ponder : “All the really valuable things you own are things you can't photograph.”
Author Unknown

Woof!!!