Well, sorry I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I have been in a partial fog and for the most part trying to conserve energy during the day. I have felt good enough to drive my self into my early morning radiation, but then have to come home and take a couple naps some days. When I am awake, I'm doing research on surgical options. Man these last two weeks have really flown by. It's almost hard to imagine that this Wednesday is my last radiation treatment, hopefully this time forever. By God's grace I continue to do better than most going through the same treatment, though I am half their age, the Dr's keep telling me to keep doing whatever I am doing as it seems to be working. I have been spared major esophagitis problems, however the irritation is starting to increase daily and other side effects continue to pop up and build on top of each other. Still understanding that the peak dose of radiation will hit tomorrow and will continue to work, we'll see what happens over the next few weeks. I continue to feel blessed and thank God for allowing me to suffer well thus far.
So the next major decision that looms in our decision making process that we will need a lot of clarity on, via prayer and guidance from God and any personal experience from you all, is the decision of what surgeon and surgical option we will go with IF we get good results back from the PET scan in a few weeks. So we met with the Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Johns Hopkins on Saturday, who has come highly recommended to us. Just like the last cancer, we felt really competent in our first opinion, but with so many fine institutions at arms reach, we also felt that it was our due diligence to get a second opinion. So this time around, things aren't as cut and dry in the decision making, and we have been presented with the option to have the esophagectomy done laproscopically. Based on their recommendation, they only select certain patients to undergo this procedure and I fit their profile, younger and healthier than most. This is a relatively newer procedure being done for esophagectomies and not a main procedure at Hopkins. The positives are obviously a quicker recovery time with shorter hospital stay and overall recovery, smaller incisions to heal and as they presented a some what noticeably better success/survival rate. The down sides are they have only done a "handful" of these procedures, as they still do mostly traditional esophagectomies. The other question is does it really increase survival or are the stats skewed based on their selection process. This is a huge prayer request that we really need some quick and clear guidance on as we need to make a decision sooner vs later to get the post staging PET scan and surgery scheduled in. We are going to meet again w/ the thoracic surgeon at University of Maryland tomorrow to get their counter opinion to what we have heard from Hopkins. So we'll add this to our prayer requests and also ask if you by chance know of any one who has had a laproscopic esophagectomy to please let us know. In addition, there is a Dr. at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who has done probably the most of these, so if any of our Ohio connections know of someone who had a esophagectomy done at UPMC, we would be especially interested.
I know I provided a lot of information on nutritional choices in my last post and really wanted to follow up with some of what we found in our research and have begun to apply. In our research, we've found diets to be all over the board in promoting disease free health. We became overwhelmed trying to determine what is God's purpose for us with food. If this has triggered something in you or your family to reconsider nutrition, I fully suggest you do your own research so you can come to your own conclusions on what best for you, as I am no expert. But here is where have we landed as a family. First to start by eating healthier. We have removed all processed foods from our cabinets, trying to shop just the perimeter of the grocery or shop your local farmers market (fresh and then frozen if needed, as well locally grown, sustainable and organic fruits and veggies when available). Then we have swapped our portion sizes and meal focus from protein to those of vegetables (we don't need as much protein as we intake). Finally, we have removed all sugar from our diet (only using natural sweetners like agave, great glycemic value as well, so it won't spike your blood sugar like other sweetners or sugars). The sugar removal has more to do with the cancer fighting, though a lot can be said for removing as much refined sugars from our diet and only using natural unrefined sugars when needed, for everything from weight control, to diabetes, to disease prevention. I know for Megan, this simple change has really removed her desire for more sweets and I know with how energetic Taylor is, it can't hurt :). The last thing we are really trying to remove, is salt and things that are known to cause inflammation, as disease tends thrive in this type of environment and for me this is as important in fighting now as to preventing recurrence later. It has really amazed us though this whole process how much by just making some of these simple changes, we really do feel better and I know I don't have any gastric problems as I had before (definitely won't go any further on that). So without boring you any further, if you want to chat food and other things that I have come across, don't hesitate to hit me up and I can provide some more context and point you in the direction of additional resources. As I referred to 1 Corinthians 6:13-20 in my previous post, our dear friend Melinda who Megan blogged about quickly and wisely points out that in 1 Cor 6:12 (NIV)
"Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial." I think that is sage advice to live by, especially when we look at what we eat daily.
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| Here's what a purge from our cabinets looked like. And this is only about half of what we got rid of! |
More to follow shortly to share with you how my last day of treatment goes, as well as additional information that I find out on the surgery end of things.
Trust in Him!
God Bless,
Jason
