from Kathy

This is from kathy, I will also e-mail briefly, but this is the main stuff for today.
I took Chuck to the Dr. today. Before we went there we went to searad to have a catscan. Dr. Peters read it and the scan did show a tumor in the tail of the Pancreas. From there we went over to see Dr. Goodman. He is the Dr. Chuck is seeing at the Swedish Tumor Institute and will continue to be his Oncologist. He had seen the scan when we got there and already had the report. - so. On Tues. when we were there he did a blood draw. From the time he had blood drawn at Overlake ( 6 or 7 days ago) until he drew blood Tues. Chucks pancreas markers had gone from 3 to 500. ( Big Jump) . He believes the tumor is what is called a neuroendocrine tumor which is a primal type of tumor. he feels that this tumor may respond to a type of chemo and suggested that Chuck start with this , this following Monday. He will be in the hosp. for 3 days so he can be closely monitored. With Chuck being at such a low level at this point, he wants to be certain that the chemo doesn't knock him down too far, and then - hopefully - it will bring him to above where he is now. After two rounds of chemo ( 3 weeks apart) we will do another scan and see if results can be seen. He is hopeful that this may give the liver some time to repair. ( Plus bloodwork to check pancreatic levels. )
After that Chuck had 6 litres of fluid drawn off via US. This should make him feel much more comfortabel immdiately. The fluid was pushing on his diaphram and heart and he did feel better.
The concern is that Chuck is so low now, the chemo may be a bit much for his body to handle.
I believe that Chuck has opted to try the chemo - I'll know more on that tomorrow.
As for food. Geoff has made a great spread sheet. When you sign up for food - don't bring too much. He eats a very little bit and more often. He loved the fresh vegetables I brought him and fresh fruit. Also the nuts tasted good and he loved Aunt Bevs potatoes. Also shakes are good. Anything that is easy for him to fix. He loves his new chair and with the table set up next to it he can put out some fruit, or anything that tastes good to him and nibble at it.
So that is today - perhaps some lite at the end of the tunnel?
Hpe this gets to ;you all. I have never blogged before - had to have Geoff lead me thru this signing up thing and bookmarking this particular blog.
Love, Mom, AKA Kathy