Update from NC - It's been a rough week but it's also been a good week

Greetings from NC,

It's been a rough week. But it's also been a good week. Let me explain.

Monday when we went in, Tom wasn't feeling the greatest. With cancer patients, there are good days & there are bad days. Monday was a really bad day. He went thru the usual daily initial stuff & then they put him in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. He felt like he was suffocating. When he came out, he was really heaving to catch his breath. We went to the IV suite for him to get a bite to eat & rest a bit before his next treatment. He was continuing to have difficulty breathing. They then took him to the lymphstar room to work on his lymphatic system. They did the first round & he said he needed a minute to catch his breath.

One of the nurses then went & got the Oximeter. It read 86% with a pulse rate of over 100. They went & got their oxygen machine to give him some oxygen. After about an hour of sitting in the lymphstar room, they said I could run back to our hotel (about a 15 minute drive) to get a drain bottle or he could leave for the day. We opted to leave early & come back to the hotel.

I set up to drain both lungs of fluid. Now mind you, draining both lungs in one day is NOT advisable. Because if one lung collapses, you can run on one lung until you get medical attention. If both lungs collapse, you are in serious trouble. Fortunately, we were able to drain them about with no issues. Tom started breathing easier & his oxygen saturation rate went above 90%. This is a win for us.

We would like to not have to drain every day. We want his body to create a "dam" to stop the lungs from filling up. When we drain the fluid off his lungs, the body wants to fill that void. This also drains much needed electrolytes. This also knocks off some of his numbers. Cancer is a numbers game, you want some numbers high & other numbers low. Some of his numbers we are keeping a close eye on are improving so we are slowly winning the game.

We went back to the clinic Tuesday morning with higher spirits & hoping for a good day. He told the one practitioner he is no longer going into the hyperbaric chamber. There was two times that he was having a hard time breathing & he is scared to go in again. So, he is going strictly on the oxygen machine for the moment. He also did the foot bath today, again the water was black with foam on the top. More lymphatic drainage coming out of the bottom of his feet. He had a basically good day going thru the therapies with no issues. We did drain the left lung of fluid when we got back to the hotel. He felt better & rested the rest of afternoon.

Tom did something this night he has never done before......he did some sleep walking. He was asking weird questions, he turned on every light in the room telling me repeatedly to wake up. (I had less than 3 hours max of sleep at this point) He kept saying I needed to look something up for him on the internet, I got up & got to my computer & asked.....Ok, what do you need me to look up? His reply.....I don't know. (facepalm) He finally came around & realized what he was doing & started to act normal. Well normal for him anyway. (lol)

Wednesday is the BIG day. He gets his Aarsota injection. What we didn't realize until now is that they use his urine in the shot. Not only from the initial collection he did last month but part of it is fresh urine from the day he gets it. The urine has the specific cancer markers for his cancer. The Aarsota injection tells the immune system to go find these markers & attack them. Last week, it took a few hours for him to have a reaction. Today, it was just a few minutes. He first started to feel anxious. He never feels anxious. The one lady said that it is the Aarsota working. Then three hours later, he started getting a fever. This is a good thing. His fever continues upwards & tops out at 101.6 & it lasts for hours. In fact, 36 hours later he still has one. This is a very good thing. He also had some chest pain but the staff didn't seem too concerned about it. His immune system is working over time to kick cancer in the back side. He slept a few hours when we got back to the hotel while his immune system worked over time.

Thursday was a good day. His fever continued into this morning. The staff at the clinic were very happy. They kept saying its a good thing about his fever continuing into the next day. He got thru all of his therapies just fine (no chamber). I even got to join him in the Rasha room. I wasn't able to listen but it was nice to catch a nap. Cancer treatments are not only exhausting for the patient but also for the caregiver.

We got a call today from McFarland Clinic in Ames telling us that our referral to Dr. Buttar's office in NC was denied. That after reviewing his medical records that it was patient preference instead of medical necessity for coming out here instead of following traditional medicine of Chemo. Wellmark does have an appeal process & I will be appealing the decision. Chemo would have only led to pain, misery & eventual death. Out here, he has a real chance at life without the sickness & misery of traditional treatments of chemo. (whether by IV or pill)

His fever from the Aarsota shot continued tonight & into the early morning hours of Friday. The fever lasting that long is a good thing believe it or not. You'll understand when I talk about Friday.

Friday morning came around early. Tom was up bright & early before sunrise. He felt good enough that he made his own breakfast. He is all smiles & being his smart alec self that I've missed the past 10 months. He walked into the clinic smarting off & bringing a smile to everyone there. He even started to rap a bit. It was a short day, we were out the door by 10:45. After we left the clinic, he felt good enough to get a haircut. He was getting pretty shaggy. He hasn't had a professional hair cut since college so he is looking pretty good right now. We feel that he has turned the corner in this fight. The next 2 weeks of his treatment should be different. His need for pain meds every eight hours has been reduced down to one a day or even less.

As I mentioned last week, Tom wanted me to get some treatments while we are here. After meeting with a provider, I've decided on Ozone blood treatments, Vit C IV's, chelation as needed after we get the results of my challenge back. The challenge is they gave me to two IV's, one was to rid my body of mercury & another for all other heavy metals & toxins. I then collected my urine for 12 hours to send in for testing. A small sample was put into a bottle to send in. That sample will be sent out on Monday. The provider recommended Ondamed & a host of other supplements too, but I declined those for now. She also recommended some home remedies. One is neubulizing collodial silver, peroxide & saline solution (contact lens solution) at 1 CC each twice a day. Using Neilmed to rinse out my sinuses. There are 3 fish gills in your nose that are the filter for air as you breathe in. Mine were swollen so this will reduce the swelling. This is very gross. Think back to when you went swimming & water went up your nose, that is what it feels like. Also, put peroxide in my ears to take care of the hardened ear wax & that may reduce the tinnitus in my ears. The chelation therapy should help with the tinnitus as well. I've reduced down the list of supplements from nine to two. Trying to keep up with Tom's supplements & mine would have been be too much. I start regular treatment next week.

That closes out this week, until next time.

Lori