‘Stable’ is a Good Word

Hi,

As usual, too much time has gone by since we last blogged.  ’Time flies‘, as they say. Although, why we’ve taken soooooo long to blog I don’t know, as we are happy to report that things have been looking up since the last posting.

Andy’s back pain was, by far, our biggest obstacle this past month.  He adjusted to wearing the brace and it did its job – for a while.  Then, all of a sudden the pain in his back was radiating out from the area of the fractures; it was excruciating, almost worse than the fractures.  Assuming it was a musculature issue we opted to visit Jodi’s fantastic chiropractor {a shout out to Dr. David Lawson at Downtown Integrative Health Group}. He gave Andy some treatments for circulation, muscle stimulation and relaxation; and more importantly some exercises to assist in stabilizing Andy’s core when he had to move around or transition from sitting to standing.  Anyway… he hasn’t worn the brace for a little over a week now and his pain has decreased significantly.

Another serious issue we’ve been battling is Andy’s increased weight {about 45 pounds – gasp!} and a huge amount of swelling all over his body {feet, legs, abdomen, hands, face…} So, we had to add two new meds to rid him of all this water weight.  They are working well and he has lost about ten pounds in the last couple of weeks and his feet look like feet again.  You don’t realize how detrimental swelling can be, for example, Andy’s fingers swelled so much that his fingernails started to cut into his fingers so now he’s on another {freakin} med to care for skin breakdown.

This last week was pretty significant because we finished the 28 day cycle of chemo on Tuesday and we received the results of an MRI we had on the 10th of February {they moved it up because we all wanted to know what was ‘going on in there‘}. We are happy to announce that the tumours are stable and have not shown any new growth in the last six weeks.

Can you say, “yay!“?

We, and oncology, are very pleased with the results.  <- Obvious statement.

This means that we have started on the next 28 day cycle of chemo, because, along with the positive MRI results, all of Andy’s lab work came back favourably, and his negative symptoms have reversed again {improved speech and dexterity}.

With Andy feeling a bit better lately and with his ability to move around again we have been fortunate to get out of the house a couple of times to enjoy a meal out.  We had a Valentine’s lunch, met with our friends Lisa + Ken, Andy had lunch out with his friend Cory and we celebrated my Mom’s birthday last night with Mom, Dad, Jodi and Aunt Rosemary.  We are incredibly thankful to get out of the house every once in a while.

That is it for now, until next time.  Love you all,

Lisa+Andy

xoxo