Dad's PET scan was approved!!!! Special thanks to Kip Hearron at the district for making this a possibility :) We are extremely excited - he's been denied so many times. We will finally get to find out just how well the chemo is working :)
He goes in tomorrow, and we'll get the results back in a few weeks. Yay!!!!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
We're in the midst of our insanely busy July.
Good news from the doctor yesterday! Not only were Dad's levels high enough to take chemo (yay!), he's been preliminarily approved for another PET scan. It looks like it will actually go through this time - after months of fighting insurance battles, we may actually get to see how the chemo is working. Hooray!
A PET scan (positron emission tomography - click link for more info) shows us everything in the body that could be of concern - nodules, tumors, etc. It can also tell us if certain growths are cancerous, which is a lot better than the CT scan he had a few weeks ago. It essentially tells us whether the chemo is working - if things are spreading. The CT scan results that we got back last week told us that his original tumors (in the liver and pancreas) haven't grown at all in the past few months, which is huge! We've been fighting insurance for a while to approve a PET scan, though, because while the CT scan tells us if the tumors are growing, a PET scan can tell us exactly how Dad's doing through all this treatment.
Spent Fourth of July at our beach "house" in Grover Beach. We went to the Cayucos Fourth of July parade, which is something we hadn't done in years, and spent the afternoon boogie boarding in the frigid water =) We ran into some friends of ours over there, as well, who happened to be staying in the house two doors down from our old beach house. It was great to go back over there and be so close to where we spent so much time when I was growing up.
After about 30 minutes at home (or so it felt), we headed to Disneyland. A friend had given us VIP passes, which meant we got 3-day park hopper tickets, as well as unlimited Fast Pass tickets. It was fantastic not having to wait in too many lines =) We stayed at the Grand Californian Hotel, which was beautiful! Very much like the Ahwahnee in Yosemite, except not nearly as old! We had direct access to California Adventure, which was great - we just walked downstairs from our room and were in the park!
Off to Vegas tomorrow for about a week. Then we can finally rest!
Fourth of July parade in Cayucos
Fourth of July parade in Cayucos
The view from our room
Family with Goofy
Celebrating their mutual retirements
At CBCC
Good news from the doctor yesterday! Not only were Dad's levels high enough to take chemo (yay!), he's been preliminarily approved for another PET scan. It looks like it will actually go through this time - after months of fighting insurance battles, we may actually get to see how the chemo is working. Hooray!
A PET scan (positron emission tomography - click link for more info) shows us everything in the body that could be of concern - nodules, tumors, etc. It can also tell us if certain growths are cancerous, which is a lot better than the CT scan he had a few weeks ago. It essentially tells us whether the chemo is working - if things are spreading. The CT scan results that we got back last week told us that his original tumors (in the liver and pancreas) haven't grown at all in the past few months, which is huge! We've been fighting insurance for a while to approve a PET scan, though, because while the CT scan tells us if the tumors are growing, a PET scan can tell us exactly how Dad's doing through all this treatment.
Spent Fourth of July at our beach "house" in Grover Beach. We went to the Cayucos Fourth of July parade, which is something we hadn't done in years, and spent the afternoon boogie boarding in the frigid water =) We ran into some friends of ours over there, as well, who happened to be staying in the house two doors down from our old beach house. It was great to go back over there and be so close to where we spent so much time when I was growing up.
After about 30 minutes at home (or so it felt), we headed to Disneyland. A friend had given us VIP passes, which meant we got 3-day park hopper tickets, as well as unlimited Fast Pass tickets. It was fantastic not having to wait in too many lines =) We stayed at the Grand Californian Hotel, which was beautiful! Very much like the Ahwahnee in Yosemite, except not nearly as old! We had direct access to California Adventure, which was great - we just walked downstairs from our room and were in the park!
Off to Vegas tomorrow for about a week. Then we can finally rest!
Fourth of July parade in Cayucos
Fourth of July parade in Cayucos
The view from our room
Family with Goofy
Celebrating their mutual retirements
At CBCCThursday, July 2, 2009
Hi all! Bill here. As soon as treatment is over this morning we're off to the beach for the 4th of July. I hope yours is a great one, too. I miss my friends and collegues at work, and, of course the kids. On the other hand, reading the entire morning paper when it's ACTUALLY morning is a nice new experience!! I still have to get used to this whole blog thing, but Aly is helping me with the tech part. Thanks to all of for your kind words and thoughts through all of this. There are two sides to everything, and there really is a gift hidden in every adversity that we face in life. It's not original, but Carpe Diem seems to be a good phrase these days. Bill
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
So, how's Bill doing?
Thanks to everyone for all their love and support throughout this time! We decided to create a blog to better answer the constant "How's Bill doing?" questions. We'd love to still talk to you about everything that's going on, but thought having a somewhat regularly-updated blog might be a good idea, as well.
So, what exactly is going on?
Dad was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer a few months ago. (We just discovered that there is a link between malignant melanoma, which he battled a few years ago, and pancreatic cancer - that would have been good to know a while back!) Although this is a horrific form of cancer, he's in good company - Patrick Swayze, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Steve Jobs are all dealing with this disease at the moment. Because it spreads so quickly, doctors initially didn't give us a very good prognosis. He started chemo right away, though, and baffled everyone by making it to my graduation in May. Dr. Patel has since stopped giving us updated prognoses, because Dad keeps beating the odds!
A bit of technical stuff, for anyone who's interested. He's on Gemzar, the best chemotherapy available for pancreatic cancer patients. We're also participating in a study through UCLA that combines Gemzar with an experimental drug. While we don't know for sure if he's receiving the experimental treatment, we all believe he is - and his doctors, as well as the researchers from UCLA, seem to agree!
Overall, he's doing fantastically. Considering everything, of course. He's finished four rounds of chemo now, and had a CT scan this morning to see how well it's been working. His doctors are all very impressed with how well he's responded to treatment, but by no means are we through this yet. Fortunately, he's been healthy enough to travel a bit, so we've been over to our house in Pismo a few times, and we're off to Disneyland in a few weeks. We also just got back from a fantastic week in Cabo, which, with the exception of worrying about swine flu and Dad's immune system, seemed to be just what he needed. Last week, Dr. Patel told him to keep spending money - "Not because I don't think you'll be around in a month or two to spend it anyway, but because all this traveling and drinking of good wine seems to be working for you!"
In other news, Mom (Diane) retired yesterday, and I think they're both looking forward to enjoying retirement together!
Dad's doctors have all said that his positive attitude is doing wonders for his health. Part of that attitude comes from your continued well-wishes, so please feel free to leave us comments! Our email addresses are below, in case you'd prefer to send a more private message.
So, what exactly is going on?
Dad was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer a few months ago. (We just discovered that there is a link between malignant melanoma, which he battled a few years ago, and pancreatic cancer - that would have been good to know a while back!) Although this is a horrific form of cancer, he's in good company - Patrick Swayze, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Steve Jobs are all dealing with this disease at the moment. Because it spreads so quickly, doctors initially didn't give us a very good prognosis. He started chemo right away, though, and baffled everyone by making it to my graduation in May. Dr. Patel has since stopped giving us updated prognoses, because Dad keeps beating the odds!
A bit of technical stuff, for anyone who's interested. He's on Gemzar, the best chemotherapy available for pancreatic cancer patients. We're also participating in a study through UCLA that combines Gemzar with an experimental drug. While we don't know for sure if he's receiving the experimental treatment, we all believe he is - and his doctors, as well as the researchers from UCLA, seem to agree!
Overall, he's doing fantastically. Considering everything, of course. He's finished four rounds of chemo now, and had a CT scan this morning to see how well it's been working. His doctors are all very impressed with how well he's responded to treatment, but by no means are we through this yet. Fortunately, he's been healthy enough to travel a bit, so we've been over to our house in Pismo a few times, and we're off to Disneyland in a few weeks. We also just got back from a fantastic week in Cabo, which, with the exception of worrying about swine flu and Dad's immune system, seemed to be just what he needed. Last week, Dr. Patel told him to keep spending money - "Not because I don't think you'll be around in a month or two to spend it anyway, but because all this traveling and drinking of good wine seems to be working for you!"
In other news, Mom (Diane) retired yesterday, and I think they're both looking forward to enjoying retirement together!
Dad's doctors have all said that his positive attitude is doing wonders for his health. Part of that attitude comes from your continued well-wishes, so please feel free to leave us comments! Our email addresses are below, in case you'd prefer to send a more private message.
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