August 7, 2011

There are not a lot of changes to report. However, I did want to give everyone a quick update. Brian appears to be healing well from the surgery. The dressings covering his surgical incision have been removed. His NG (nasogastric) tube has also been removed. This is a tube inserted through the nose, down the back of the throat, through the esophagus, and into the stomach. The purpose of inserting the tube was to keep the digestive juices out of the stomach so that Brian's bowels could rest and heal from the stress caused by the obstruction and his recent surgery. The doctors are waiting for signs that his bowels are functioning properly before they will allow him to eat or drink. At the moment, the doctors and nurses are primarily focused on managing his pain which seems to be improving a bit more each day. Yesterday he was able to get out of bed and sit up in a chair for awhile. Over the course of the next few days, the goal will be to get him up walking and moving around. Brian is keeping positive outlook and fighting very hard to get stronger. For the moment, these are the only significant updates. As he continues to progress, I will keep you informed.

August 5, 2011: Post Surgery Update

Brian and I are resuming this blog to help keep our dear family and friends informed about the recent progression of his disease. This past February a recurrence of his Cancer was discovered on a routine CT scan. The scan revealed new tumor activity along his small bowel track. Since that time we have pursued non-surgical therapies in the hopes of avoiding aggressive, invasive treatments that would compromise the good work he has done in the past two years to restore strength and good health. Unfortunately, these options have not been successful. Over the past month Brian has increasingly struggled to eat without experiencing pain, and has lost 20 pounds since the recurrence in February. A CT scan on July 14th revealed that he was suffering from a partial bowel obstruction, which at first appeared to be the result of scar tissue that had developed from his initial surgery in 2009. Since that time, his pain and symptoms have progressed. On Saturday, July 30, 2011, after a consultation with his doctors it was recommended that he be admitted to Norton Hospital. At that point he was placed on strict NPO orders (no intake of any foods or liquids) and placed on IV fluids to help nourish and rehydrate his body. His surgeon, Dr. Robert Martin, evaluated him on Monday (August 1, 2011) and after further review and consultation with the radiologist, Brian’s obstruction appeared more likely to be the result of tumor growth around his small bowel. Dr. Martin transferred him to University Hospital and began preparations for surgery. Initially the plan was to remove the tumors around the small bowel and perform another HIPEC (Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy) treatment. Around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday (August 3,2011), Brian underwent surgery. Once his surgeon was able to get a closer look inside Brian’s abdomen, he discovered that the tumors wrapped around his small bowel were too nodular (hard in consistency) to extract without compromising the function of his small bowel. He instead opted to create a bypass around the tumors to allow food to successfully pass through his digestive tract. Since the surgeon was unable to remove the tumors, he did not perform the HIPEC procedure. The immediate goal is to get Brian healed from the surgery and make sure the bypass is a successful solution to the problems caused by the obstruction. If this works and he is able to eat properly and gain weight and strength, we will begin discussions about aggressive chemo therapy treatments that may shrink and/or destroy the tumors causing the obstruction. As we know more about his recovery and next steps we will post that information on this blog.

We are so grateful for the outpouring of kindness and support we have received, and we will try to keep all of you updated. Thank you all for keeping us close to your hearts as we continue our fight. Please feel free to post any questions you may have to the blog and we will do our best to answer them in future posts and updates.