Snowbird with the Thomas family

Thanks to Jason and Sherrie, we spent a few days at Snowbird's Cliff Lodge for some rest, relaxation and eating! Here's Craig looking rather svelte in his swimsuit. We tried hard to fatten him up at the restaurants and with all the fattening food we brought up to the condo. Here's the crew in the hot tub with a little too much steam but it was nice!! (Sherrie and Jake were missing from the photo because Jake's too young to be at the roof top pool...sorry!) Thanks Thomas family, we love you guys! You do so much to help us out and keep us entertained.

Grandpa Dave

Cute Grandpa is in the Woodland Park rehab center right now as he tries to get stronger after an extended hospital stay. Craig and I went to visit him last Sunday and he is doing very well and getting stronger all the time. He's probably the healthiest out of the ailing Doutres right now! We love you Grandpa!

And the scan is in...

Dr. Carlisle was very proud of himself today declaring: "there is dead tissue" in your liver vs. living, growing tumors. We saw for ourselves on the screen the black areas that used to be tumors in the left side of the liver were now gray and absorbing contrast which is what we want them to do. The last chemo was an aggressive treatment and it has been deemed a success and Dr. Carlisle is ready to go in there again. The problem is...Craig isn't ready and still is recovering from the last one. He does not have the energy physically or psychologically to do it yet. The other issue is he is basically malnourished according to Dr. Carlisle and needs to start taking in food "like a linebacker" to make his body strong again. He said you need to take in up to 3500 calories a day to keep up with what the tumors are taking from you and not lose weight. They call it a "hypercatabolic state" or an excessive metabolic breakdown of body tissue in general, leading to weight loss and wasting. Craig does not have an appetite right now at all and struggles to eat food each day. The dr. wants to put a feeding tube into his stomach and inject a liquid food into him many times a day to up his calorie and nutrition level. Craig needs to do this to help him gain the strength he needs to endure another chemo treatment in Nov. So we're thinking about that idea plus he was given an appetite stimulant medicine to try this weekend and see what it does. I'm kind of getting a complex...it must be my cooking (or lack of cooking) that's doing it. But really I'm trying to feed him!

The other news is that there is a new chemo pill for pancreatic cancer called Sutent. It has shown promise in "progression-free" survival for patients with pancreatic islet cell tumors. Patients in the trials did not show tumor growth for up to 11 months vs. 5 months in patients who got the placebo. This could be an option for Craig if he just isn't strong enough to continue the chemo embolization right now. It's nice to have another option available.

Getting Out

Today Craig and I "got out" and we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was beautiful with the fall colors and we walked around Silver Lake and took this picture. He's still fighting to keep his 160 lbs. on. He's not feeling like any food sounds too good but after this outing he actually ate 2 Arby's roast beef sandwiches smothered in lots of Arby's sauce and half a chocolate shake. I was happy to see him actually hungry! This week is a CT scan on Tuesday where he gets to drink the yucky contrast for 2 hours before the scan and get blood work that same day. On Thursday we meet with Dr. Carlisle and Dr. Jones to see what the scan and blood work showed. Pray for decimated tumors and low chromogranin-A numbers!

Maddie's Homecoming Dance

Maddie attended the Homecoming dance at Skyline last night. She was absolutely stunning, model-quality, knock 'em dead gorgeous. Here's a photo where you can see for yourself. I am just the mother talking so you do have to realize I'm slightly biased. The lucky guy was Danny Bowen who is also a junior at Skyline.

This photo is with Maddie's best friend Shelby McVea and her date Nelson Johansen.

A Strapping 160 pounds

Here is "the Craiger"! He's vertical and moving around without oxygen. I'm so proud of him for the progress he's made this week. He's eating and drinking and actually going up and down the stairs! He's even walked as far as 1/2 block down the street (and back)! He's doing so much better this week so we feel really lucky he's pulled through this one so far. Now we just need to keep him eating...mashed potatoes, ice cream and popsicles are his favorites. He even went to Arby's yesterday for the "5 for $5" deal. Ate 2 and that was it for the day. As you can see his hair is still there...a little thinner and coarser but he's still got a lot. Thanks everyone for the nice things you do for us daily.

A roller coaster

This really is a roller coaster. The last time I wrote was Tuesday and now it's Sunday. The last 4 days have been very challenging. Poor Craig sunk into a drug-induced stupor and became very confused and unresponsive to much of anything. He has been in pain and could not relax at night, was restless and up every hour wandering around the bedroom, trying to get comfortable on the chair or the bed. Moving his pillows and rearranging them over and over. Feeling he had to go to the bathroom over and over and just totally out of it. I was following him around trying to catch him if he fell and trying to help him get comfortable. It was almost impossible to sleep at all. For 3 nights he got up once an hour then finally around 4am he would sleep for about 4 hours. On Friday I was extremely worried that something was seriously wrong. Dr. Craig told me to take him to the LDS Hospital ER since Huntsman doesn't have an ER. They checked him out and drew blood and hooked him up to an IV. The labs showed that the liver was functioning ok and his electrolytes were ok. He was slightly dehydrated so we pumped him full of 2 liters of fluid and they sent us home with a new drug to help him relax and sleep. Friday night he still didn't sleep and neither did I and by Saturday I was feeling pretty hopeless. David, Craig's brother, came over and they watched the BYU game together and Dave fed him and kept him awake. He eventually did fall asleep but when he woke up he had turned a corner. He was lucid and talking coherently. It was amazing. He said he felt like the fog had been lifted. His pain level has decreased where just ibuprofen seems to hit it during the day. He sat up and ate and showered and put on clean clothes and came into the kitchen and we checked his blood oxygen level and it was 94 without oxygen. So what can I say...but we felt like we got Craig back. Cute Maddie had even said earlier today that she felt like she needed to watch a video from the past of her dad to remember what he was like. But now...slowly but surely we feel the awful drugs have left his body and he's back to being more normal (well, for Craig) again. Thanks to David, Scott, Lisa, Craig H. and everyone else for really pulling us through the last few days. We couldn't have done it without you. Today is Sunday and he's been up and talking and eating and being a part of the family again. What a relief to us all. Thanks for everyone thoughts and prayers.