Renewed Hope

Your prayers have sustained us through the night. Brian is better today, not a lot, but better. Results below...

Chest xray was clear. Did not show any evidence of the lump on his back, which simply means it hasn't invaded the lung or deep enough to show up on an xray.

Ultrasound of the leg is considered inconclusive actually, not clear. Brian can't hardly stand anyone to touch his leg, let alone push on it with the ultrasound wand, so they don't feel the results to be accurate.

CT scan of the pelvis was clear of disease. We were all very surprised by this, and relieved. There is a pocket of fluid in the lower abdomen...same pocket that we have been battling for months. It showed up on a CT in Sept., but wasn't causing him trouble then. Now they want to investigate, and it might very well mean that Brian will have another drain put in. He is ticked off about this, but he'll have to suffer through this seemingly minor detail...minor in the big scheme of things, but a pain in the rear for him. More later about this...

His hemoglobin was 8.9 on Monday, 7 on Wed., 10.4 yesterday, and back down to 8.4 today. He is getting another two units of blood here in a few minutes.

He is getting hydrated, and I can really see him starting to perk up as the day goes on. He has even eaten a few bites of different things that he has asked for. He took in only what I forced down him for the past week, so this is a nice change. We are discussing giving an appetite stimulant in the next day or so if needed. Even that he thinks any food looks good is a nice change. He took two bites of a peanut butter chocolate cheesecake type dessert, so that may have had enough calories to sustain him for the day...ha!

Now to the staph...it is indeed a staph infection. He had a negative blood culture coming from the blood draw out of his arm. He tested positive out of his port, which may or may not indicate that the port is the source.

And then the leg from hell...it almost felt like an episode of House. Dr. Doll came in with Dr. Huq and Dr. Gill, and they were on a mission to find out where this pain was coming from if the CT didn't show spinal involvement (at least the lower spine). They started messing with his right leg because it had been reported yesterday that Brian's leg was hot and red, besides being swollen. He was wincing in pain and told Dr. Doll that he might start crying, it hurt so bad. They started throwing around ideas, and all agreed that he clearly had staph in his leg, and they think the leg is the source, despite what the positive blood culture from the port said. They also think it could have started in the port and settled in the leg. Either way, his leg is what is contributing mostly to his declined condition.

So...they have ordered a CT with contrast of the pelvis and legs, which will show the tissue and give them a better indication of what is going on with that pocket of fluid. It will also show what is up with the leg in terms of pockets of fluid and/or fasciitis (inflammation of the lining tissues covering the underlying tissues). He is already on antibiotics, so that will not change. He will need to have a 28 day cycle of IV antibiotics to treat the staph infection. They are telling us that it will be 4-5 days here in the hospital until they get all negative blood cultures, then he can take the rest at home.

If he starts feeling better, we can move forward and he can have his next ipilumimab treatment. We'll discuss that in a few days.

I prayed all night for strength, and for this to be something they could fix so we could still have the chance to kill melanoma with the chemo. It is hard to see God working, and it is easy to feel abandoned when things are so hard. I prayed that we could just keep the faith and hope going, and that He would help the doctors find the source of this awful pain. It seems those prayers have been answered, and for that, I am thankful. I know so many are storming Heaven on our behalf, and you have made a difference in our lives...thank you.

I'll post later on updates, and on the our story.
Jenni