April 23, 2019 – a rough few days

Jenna left on Friday to return to Nashville. Lindsey and Jason arrived the same day late. The plan was just to hang out over the weekend in anticipation of the oncology appointment on Tuesday. However it did not work out this way. Early Sunday morning, I began having excruciating pain in my torso. Jodell was going to drive me to the hospital but I didn’t think I could walk to the car. An ambulance was called and I was whisked away to upstate Hospital in Syracuse. When they wheeled me into the ER, it was like a scene from one of those doctor shows. As many people that could find space were surrounding my stretcher. It was determined that the site of my liver biopsy was bleeding on the inside. The bottom fell out of my blood pressure. That was stabilized and later that day they performed a procedure going into my groin and patching the bleeding spots in my liver. That procedure was successful. I have been in the intensive care unit up until last night. I have now been moved to a regular room. I hope to go home possibly today but most likely Thursday.  It appears cancer treatment has been postponed a day or two because of this event.  Ryan showed up yesterday and is here now. It is good to have him here.

If you ever find yourself in my situation, be careful of the music you request that is piped into the room during the scan. When asked, I said how about some good old classic country music. So in this step in dealing with life threatening cancer, I heard classics such as “if I die just bury me in the jukebox”, “he stopped loving her today”, etc. good tunes but maybe not appropriate at this time. LOL

Anyway the PET scan is complete. The oncologist will soon have all needed data. All cards will be put on the table on Tuesday. Stay tuned!

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

April 3, 2019 – Jodell and I had traveled to Tampa to visit Ryan. This sunny day I had the opportunity to lay out by the pool in the sun in order to thaw out from the cold Newfoundland winter. After laying on my back for a short period of time I rolled over onto my belly. Because of the tight fabric on the lounge chair, I felt a lump in my upper abdomen that at the time I thought might be part of the chair. After a quick chair inspection, I rolled back over on my back and felt a lump that I had not noticed before. My self-diagnosis came to the conclusion that it was my gizzard or some other normal part of the anatomy but made a mental note to report this to my cardiologists during an upcoming appointment.

April 11, 2019 – close to the end of a routine cardiology appointment, I casually mentioned the lump that I had discovered the week before. After a quick exam of the area in question, her reaction was not quite so casual. Not in these exact words but it was something like “holy sh**! That finding led to an echocardiogram, CT scans, bloodwork, MRI, liver biopsy, and admission to the hospital.

April 13, 2019 – discharged from the hospital. Now waiting for test results

April 15, 2019 – I got the call from the cardiologist to inform me of what they know to date which is: Liver cancer with a 20 cm tumor, in addition there is a “streamer” that goes from the tumor into my heart. Could be a clot or could be tumor. Also there are suspicious spots in both lungs.

April 16, 2019 – my initial appointment with the oncologist. He does not believe that the “streamer” is part of the tumor. He thinks it is a clot. He also believes that the spots on my lungs are not cancerous. A PET scan that is now scheduled for April 19 will determine what the streamer is. A lung biopsy may be necessary also. Once the results of the PET scan are known, a treatment game plan will be put into action.