On Tuesday, Larry had his last chemo treatment of this round. He went 6 for 6. WHOO HOO!!! This round tried its hardest to keep him down but he didn't let it! It truly is a miracle that he has gone through 3 rounds of the most brutal chemotherapy medicine has to offer and has not had one major complication. I don't mean that his treatment has been a walk in the park, because it hasn't. This round was a little bit harder on his body than the other two. His nausea progressively intensified with each treatment and he lost weight. But in true Larry fashion he bounced back and gained 3 pounds between chemo #5 and #6. Even the flu tried to sideline him, but it wasn't enough to keep Larry down and it certainly wasn't enough to compromise his chemo schedule. He was absolutely adamant that NOTHING was going to slow down his chemo plan.
I need to take a minute and remind the readers of what my brother is currently dealing with. He recovered from his 3rd major surgery just 3 months ago. When he woke up from surgery we had to break the news to him that Dr. Salti had no choice but give him a colostomy. So, not only did he have to recover from a major surgery, once again, but he also had to deal with a colostomy. For those of you that don't know - there is a HUGE learning curve living with a colostomy bag. Learning to adapt to crapping in a bag is a shitty job-emptying the bag, dealing with the smell of the bag, keeping the part of the colon that is protruding out of his stomach free from infection, a radical change in diet, and so much more but I don't want to gross you out. AND don't forget he was diagnosed with diabetes prior to his surgery, so he had to find a diet that helped with the colostomy and one that would keep his diabetes in check. The list of foods in the 'can have' column for the colostomy is in the 'avoid' column for diabetes and vice a versa. But he did it! Once he recovered from the major surgery he went right into chemotherapy. So, 6 days in 12 weeks he not only had to deal with his colostomy bag hanging off of his body but he also had a bag of chemo hanging from him. Seriously?? And he did it...without complaints and without complications.
Please do me a favor...the next time something doesn't go your way or you had a bad day, or your feeling sorry for yourself... please think of my brother and know that you can get through it. I would like to think something positive can come from my brother's game with cancer - if it helps just one person put life in perspective and get over the bump they are facing - it would mean Larry's unfair game with cancer has a little bit more meaning.
So what's next????
Larry's body needs time to recover from this round of chemo. So, in about 3 weeks he will get a PET and CT scan to see if his body responded to the chemo. After the scans are done, Dr. Salti will schedule yet another surgery. Depending on the results of the CT and PET scan the surgery will either be an exploratory surgery- that would mean the scans showed no evidence of cancer, but Dr. Salti wants to make sure that is the case - or the scans showed cancer and Dr. Salti will go in and get it.
For those of you who have never had to deal with cancer, the weeks leading up to scans and days following scans, waiting for results, are the toughest on not only my brother but his family. It is like holding your breath for a very long time-you have a difficult time concentrating because your holding your breath, you have a difficult time focusing because your holding your breath, you have a difficult time enjoying life because your are holding your breath. So please, go easy on my family for the next couple weeks...we are holding our breaths.
Sox it to it Lar......
