Do Doctors Intentionally Stall?

We heard from the doctor on Tuesday morning, however, we were hoping for more information by the end of the day yesterday or first thing today- no such luck. So here is the latest “progress” report on Jerry.

They will not have the pathology results from the biopsy until the end of this week, perhaps early next week, however, the oncologist, liver specialists and doctors all consulted Monday afternoon and have decided on a different course of action. They are still planning on doing a bone scan within the next week or so, and may do a few additional tests that they deem necessary.

The big change is that instead of performing surgery on the tumor and removing over 60% of the liver, they have opted to go for Chemotherapy. Yes, I said Chemo. The type of Chemo they are planning on is called “Chemo-C” or Concentrated Chemotherapy. This means that Jerry will have one bout of Chemo (at most 2 if necessary) and the chemo is injected directly into the tumor. They are hoping to shrink the tumor as much as possible. They say there is no hair loss or other major side effects with this type- that patients often feel like they have the flu for a few days, and that’s about it.

They are trying to figure out when they can get him in for the chemo- sometime in the next 2 weeks or so, depending on all the doctors schedules involved. He will for sure have this treatment done by the end of the year. This is the hold up right now in trying to get him into the hospital and on the schedule.

After the bout of Chemo, they will then wait approx. one month and do another CT scan to see how the tumor has progressed/shrunk. The next step after that MAY be to do a liver transplant at that time. If they tumor hasn’t shrunk enough for them to do the transplant, then they will go in and do the original surgery of removing a percentage of the liver housing the tumor and the area around the tumor. At this point, the earliest Jerry would have surgery (of any kind) would be mid-late January.

It’s not expected that he should have to return to the hospital, other than for the Chemo treatment and bone scans – and will be at home. Not sure at this point if he can return to work yet – I think that will depend upon how the treatment goes and how he reacts.
Jerry goes in to see his regular doctor tomorrow and hopefully at that time, they will be able to determine when they can get him in for the Chemo. If not, heads will start crackin’ as they are dragging their feet too long. ;)

The last few days for Jerry have been hard. The pain is still ever present and the pain meds only do so much. The pain is making it difficult for him to sleep and of course, this waiting game isn’t helping any - but he is hanging in there with a pretty positive attitude.

That's all for now. Keep your thoughts and spirits up for Jerry and we'll let you know more once we know more.