Dr. Visits

On Tuesday, May 26, we had 2 doctor appointments. One with the intervention radiologist (IR), Dr. Burdett and one with the GI oncologist, Dr. Jones. Dr. Burdett will be the doctor overseeing the chemoembolization which is the chemotherapy directed at the liver through the hepatic artery. She explained that a small portion of the liver would be "embolized" which would target the tumors in the liver in that area through their blood vessels and hopefully preserve the other portion of the liver to maintain liver function. Then after Craig recovers from that session, about 4 weeks later they would go in and do it to another portion of the liver. This is really the only treatment available for his type of cancer. We hope to have this scheduled next week so he'll have about two weeks to recover before we go to California for a much-awaited beach vacation.

We then met with Dr. Jones who assessed Craig's current health and how the octreotide is working. Craig relayed his current symptoms which include flushing of the face and neck and hypoglycemia (low sugar 2-3 times/day) and slightly less diarrhea. Dr. Jones decided that the drug is not doing what it should and told him to stop the injections. Craig will see how he feels without the drug as the research is not conclusive as to whether this drug will help with his extensive tumor load in the liver. So now he's back to where he began and not feeling great with a recent cold. We'll see how his body reacts now that he's not taking the shots.

After the appointment Dr. Jones wanted more blood drawn so we stopped by the lab. They drew blood and he felt pretty low suger at the time. When we got home Dr. Jones called to say his blood sugar level was 34! Normal is 100. Very low...he needs to eat and drink every 2-3 hours to keep it up. The tumor must be producing insulin they think...but no one really knows exactly what is going on. Dr. Jones said the cancer is a low grade, neuroendocrine tumor but not the islet cell, more like a carcinoid. It is all becoming very obvious that they are making the best "educated" guess but no one is positive exactly what type of cancer has invaded Craig's body.