Yearly Archives: 2019

Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Christmas and Biopsy Results

First, I want to wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and created wonderful memories. That’s what I have told people the last couple weeks… make beautiful memories. Not social media picture perfect memories though, but true memories. Memories that are more documented in the heart (though it is ok to document them on social media).  This is going to be a long post and some may think I have overshared, but I do want to be honest and transparent with how we are doing. Trust me, I don’t share everything. 😊  By sharing Jeremy’s diagnosis and asking for prayer, we have invited you along on this journey. And honestly I share with you what has been laid on my heart to share. I actually do pray about what to type here before I do. So here it is. I do get asked a…

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December 27, 2019
Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Second Opinion

We headed to Emory today for a second opinion today. It was a long and tiring day for Jeremy, BUT we got a second opinion and the doctor who specializes in gastric cancers said they would not do anything different than what Jeremy's oncologist is doing for him. He didn't tell us anything different than what we already knew and confirmed that the Foundation One biopsy is important in knowing how we can move forward with his treatment. So today's appointment confirmed what we already had peace about and now this doctor can be used as a resource especially when the biopsy results come back, hopefully within the next two weeks. He was more than willing to discuss those with Jeremy's oncologist when she gets the results.  Tomorrow morning, we head back to the hospital for hopefully the last procedure until after Christmas. He had a paracentesis done on Monday…

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December 17, 2019
Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Update 12/12

So it’s been a bit since I updated on how Jeremy is doing.  Jeremy just finished up his last chemo for this first round of treatments on Wednesday. He will have one more round of 28 days before he has another scan to see if this chemo is effective.  He has tolerated this chemo way better than the first type of chemo he was on. Now I cringe at thinking how hard it was on him, especially in comparison to this one. It’s even more frustrating to know that it didn’t work and he suffered unnecessarily. But it is what it is.  Next chemo day is the day after Christmas so we are happy that he gets a break. He does have another paracentesis on Monday because of the ever present fluid buildup.  He actually has had a couple good days though, which is wonderful because before we were happy if we got…

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December 12, 2019
Uncategorized

Another Biopsy

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. For everyone who posted or sent texts filled with pumpkin pie, thank you! Some of them made me laugh out loud. You all are great. This morning, we went in to have Jeremy's other lung drained of fluid and we found out that he could do the abdomen too instead of having to go in tomorrow for that. Holy cow, he had a lot of fluid. Everything went well and he came home to eat and then go take a nap. We were up pretty early to be there at 7 am. Thankfully Mom and Dad took the kids last night and Mom made sure they got to school today. Well the older two that is. There was lots of jumping around and rearranging schedules by my sister and dad to stay home with Ari who started getting sick yesterday. She'll stay an…

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December 2, 2019
Jeremy's Cancer Journey / Uncategorized

Pumpkin Pie and Prayers Part 2

Thank you so much everyone for participating in the "Pumpkin Pie and Prayers". It meant a lot to Jeremy to see those pics and read your words of encouragement!  If you took a picture and didn't send it, it's not too late!  Feel free to continue to send them. Thursday started rough for Jeremy and he was unable to join the family gathering like we had hoped.  However, I am happy to report by the end of the day he was able to at least enjoy his piece of pie. So we take the wins and are extremely grateful for them.  We are praying he will get to eat many more pieces of pie before the season is over! Thank you for your continued prayers and support. They mean so much to Jeremy, Dee and the entire family.  

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November 29, 2019
Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Procedures and Tests

We haven't had the appointment with the oncologist yet this week but Jeremy saw his CT scan results last week and talked a little bit with the doctor yesterday over the phone. Unfortunately  (or maybe fortunately...not sure on that one yet), his cancer has spread and grown. Chemo didn't work at stabilizing him. We are still waiting on the results to see if he has any markers to do immunotherapy. I am a bit frustrated with that because we knew they most likely didn't have enough in the first two tests to get a good reading, but because of protocol, this is the procedure they had to follow. I had thought by the time he was done with Round 4 and had the results, we would know if he had other options. However, there is still Hope and Hope is good. Of course, when I read the report, I couldn't…

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November 26, 2019
Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Round 4

Jeremy went in for his fourth treatment yesterday. The fluids have been building up again and he hasn't been eating or drinking much this week. We didn't see his body release any fluids after the the third treatment like we did with the second treatment. Yesterday he was even contemplating holding off his treatment based on how he was feeling. The oncologist agreed to have a paracentesis (drain) done since the benefits outweigh the risks. He has to wait until Monday morning to have it done because he has to be off the blood thinner that he has been taking for 5 days. He will still be on a blood thinner, just one that won't stay in his system as long. Since Jeremy will have another scan done next week, he really wanted to push through and do the treatment so that that could take place. He wants to know…

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November 14, 2019
Dogs / Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Foundation One and Other Musings

It seems to be that we are waiting forever to get test results back on the Foundation One biopsy. This is the test that will see if Jeremy is a match to immunotherapy, possible clinical trials, or other meds. Unfortunately, the bone marrow biopsy from the hospital didn't have enough to run the test and so a sample of what was taken during the endoscopy was sent in. However two days ago, we found out that wasn't enough either. The type of cancer that he has (no tumor) didn't allow for the doctor to take more without causing more injury. So... he went in yesterday to get blood drawn to run it that way. So we wait more.  After reading up on immunotherapy, I realized everything was saying that immunotherapy was only tried after chemo had proven ineffective. The oncologist confirmed this. Jeremy is supposed to have another scan after the…

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November 8, 2019
Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Blood Clot

I thought with each treatment we would have a better idea of patterns so we would know what to expect each time. Silly me. We are dealing with cancer. What was I thinking!?! Jeremy has been doing ok, but not as well as I would hope or expected. Apparently, I need to learn to take each day as they come, or even each hour, because sometimes that even changes. We've been able to get some food and fluids in him, but not as much as we would like. He's trying though. He definitely gets an A for effort.  His leg had still been really bothering him. He had a ultrasound done in the hospital back in September because of that leg. It had been clean, but we chose to have it looked at again yesterday for peace of mind.  The area that hurts is fine, just fluid in the tissue,…

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November 5, 2019
Jeremy's Cancer Journey

Round 3 and Update

I figured it would be a good time for an update on Jeremy since it's been a bit since I gave one.  So the good news... last week we started seeing a lot of the fluids come off of Jeremy's body! We didn't need to go in to have another drain done which was a relief for him... and for me. Today, the doctor said she could see an improvement from the first time he had seen her in the office. She had told us in the beginning that he probably wouldn't get some relief with the fluids until about the fourth treatment when the lesions would start shrinking and his body would slow down on responding with inflammation, so we were really happy to see his body responding on the second treatment. Now that he started round 3 today, we are hoping and praying to see more improvement. His…

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October 30, 2019