God and CPR saved my life!

I died 3:30pm yesterday, Tuesday, January 28th!

You read that correctly...

I am alive and we came home from the hospital 6:30pm today, Wednesday, January 29th!

Here's the crazy story and God's miraculous working...

I went for my second IV Iron infusion

Yesterday at the Oncology Infusion Center
(Because of extreme anemia)

I'd had my first IV Iron infusion last Tuesday

And everything had gone fine.

It was to be a series of two infusions

Separated by a week.

Things did not go so well yesterday!

Within seconds of the IV Iron infusion beginning to drip

I immediately knew something was wrong

I became extremely light headed

Told the nurse so

And then proceeded to pass out!

The next part I found out when I came to a couple of minutes later

Surrounded by about 10 paramedics!

My sister had quickly alerted the charge nurse

Who immediately yanked out the IV from my port

To stop the flow of Iron into my system

And gave me a steroid to counteract

The severe allergic reaction I was having.

So severe that no one had ever heard of it happening before.

My heart stopped!

Immediately flat-lined!

No Pulse!

For one minute!

I was hooked up to an AED machine

But without any pulse

It was of no help.

One of the doctors immediately began giving me CPR

(Talk about a whole new understanding of the value of CPR classes!)

By which time the EMS folks had arrived.
(Pretty quick, huh?)

Then the miracle...

I immediately became alert and talkative

I was able to answer all their questions

I was totally coherent!
(With extremely sore, but none fractured, ribs!)

This does not happen when someone has flat-lined

And just been resuscitated by CPR!

They immediately transferred me by ambulance

To the ER

Where my vitals quickly normalized

In the next hour or so

Without any other needed medicine

Than the steroid I'd been immediately given

To counteract the allergic reaction

MIRACLE!

I was kept overnight last night

Due to the obviously serious and extremely rare reaction

To keep observing me

And in case of a potential secondary reaction

That could possibly trigger another "event".

Thankfully it was a boring and uneventful day:)

An ecocardiogram revealed my heart was strong

And functioning well:)

My vitals continued to be good

And I was discharged at 6:30pm tonight!

Hallelujah!

God made it clear that He wasn't done with me yet:)

Thanks again for your prayers.

Friday, I will begin chemo and immunotherapy

Again, I will appreciate so much your prayer

As I embark on a new stage of this cancer journey

Seeing if God will use these to facilitate healing

Or show us that my journey is leading sooner rather than later

Towards my eternal home - heaven!

What a crazy and miracle filled 27 hours!!

What a sobering reminder of how quickly life can end

And eternity be next on the agenda!

In the meantime...

Here's to hoping that the next 27 hours aren't quite so exciting:)

Thanks again so much for your support, encouragement and prayer!

Blessings,

Dave

Hard News

Hail Mary!
(for you non-football fans, a "Hail Mary" is a desperation pass thrown into the end zone at the end of a football game with the hope that it will be caught and the game is miraculously won at the last minute!)

That is how my oncologist repeatedly described my chances of success in beating this cancer

When we met with him yesterday.

The immunotherapy and chemotherapy that I will be beginning Friday, January 31st

Have the slight possibility of being successful

But my condition has become very serious.

He showed us a CT scan from March 2018 when the tumor was first discovered

And then showed us a CT scan from when I was in the hospital last week.

The tumor has probably grown by 15-20 times in the last 11 months!

Very discouraging:(

Medically speaking

He was very honest in estimating my chances as less than 10%.

We know that God is still in the business of working miracles

And it is a miracle that we're looking at to turn this around.

I will be having a port inserted tomorrow morning

For the therapy infusions.

The biggest challenge at this point

Besides mentally and emotionally grappling with the reality of my mortality

And preparing for the very real possibility of death

While at the same time not giving up hope

Is pain management

I am hurting a lot of the time.

That's about it for now...

Thank you again for your support and prayer and encouragement:)

Specifically I'd ask that you pray that I can keep my mind on things above

And not grovel in self pity or grouse about the lot I've been given.

Heaven is an incredible hope!

Please pray for Cindy and our kids also...as we journey this together.

With much love and appreciation,

Dave

Home Sweet Home

After an unexpected one full week in the hospital

I was able to come home last night, Saturday, January 18th

It is so nice to be home!

It is also nice not to be in pain every hour of every day:)

I'd forgotten what it was to not live in pain.

We didn't realize how I was getting worse daily

As we clung to the hope that the treatment was working.

It is now regrouping and seeing if the immunotherapy will work

In helping my body defeat the enemy mesothelioma attacking my body.

I am thankful for a second chance!

My body is pretty weary

Feeling like it's been put through quite the battle

This past week

Getting on top of the pain

Trying to get rid of these pesky, exhausting hiccups

And restoring some balance to my bodily situation.

Thank you again for walking through this cancer journey with me:)

We'll see what the next stage in the journey holds!

Blessings,

Dave

MAJOR Changes!!

Monday, January 6th, was "Hallelujah!"

As my PleurX catheter worked beautifully after being plugged and not working.

Today, Tuesday, January 14th, my PleurX catheter was taken out, removed...no more!!

It's been quite a crazy last few days...

The PleurX worked beautifully Monday through Thursday of last week

Then Friday it showed signs of slowing down again

And on Saturday quit working completely after drawing only 300ml of fluid

Question:

Do we go in Saturday night?

Or wait until Sunday morning?

When of course I'd prefer to ignore that there was a problem and not go in at all:)

Except I REALLY felt REALLY bad!

My whole body for weeks had been feeling worse little by little

And over the past few day had felt as bad as I ever remembered feeling:(

This along with a regular fever

Tipped the scales into going to the ER Saturday night

Boy...are we ever glad that we did!

As I write this blog on Tuesday night, January 14th...

I am still in the hospital!

Yep:)

This is a summary of what has happened leading to MAJOR changes in moving forward!

Saturday night the ER doctors decided quickly

After looking at my frequent flyer history at the ER

And my extreme body pain and fever

That something had to be figured out

Rather than just draining my lung and sending me home.

What a novel idea:)

Thus began the drawing of much blood, and the doing of many tests

e.g. urine, lung fluid, etc.

To try and figure out what was causing the increase in body pain and fever

And the steady increase in lung fluid,

Not to mention that the PleurX catheter was not working!

I was admitted into the hospital around midnight

And finally a bed became available around 10am Sunday morning!

Harrison Hospital is a busy place

And the care we have received there has been incredible:)

After the many tests and many conversations with doctors

The realization was come to that the pain and fever 

Were not from any infection

Or the flu

(although anyone coming into my room did need to wear a mask as a precaution even though the tests cam back negative for the flu!)

BUT...from the cancer growing:(

It was the cancer causing my misery....pain and fever and fluid

Wow!

This after the hair sample in December indicated a slight decrease in the cancer?

What was to be believed?

The facts were becoming pretty clear that my body was saying

That the cancer was progressing...

That we needed to do something different quickly

"If we could"

Or God's timing for calling me home may be very soon!

This marked the turning point...

"If we could"

Because when Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and University of Washington

Had deemed me incurable

And only eligible for palliative care

The current treatment plan that I've been doing

At least brought hope

That there might be hope

And it has been successful for some

But seemingly not for me

As the reality that I was getting worse daily

Was becoming starkly clear

So "if we could"

Happened this morning, Tuesday, January 14th

A PA friend working in oncology

Came to the hospital yesterday to meet with Cindy and I

She again pointed out the "handwriting on the wall"

Was that the cancer was getting worse

And highly recommended us meeting with 

An oncologist of whom she thought highly

We agreed

She walked over to his office

Chatted with him

And he agreed and did, in fact, come in to meet with Cindy and I this morning at the hospital

Thus the turning point!

SCCA and UW let me go

After a scope and biopsy were done,

And it was evident my lungs were filled with mesothelioma

And I would not qualify for an immunotherapy clinical trial.

The turning point?

The local oncologist offered me the very immunotherapy

I was unable to get through a clinical trial at SCCA and UW

Even though my insurance company 

Would not pay for it!

Hope was again being offered

Out of the blue!

This is a MAJOR change

Switching from the pancreatic enzyme treatment protocol

To immunotherapy supplemented by chemotherapy

But we believe it is the right decision for me at this point.

Again, thank you so much for your prayer and support and encouragement

The past few days have been really rough

And we know there are still some rough days ahead

Remember that I mentioned that my PleurX was removed today?

It wasn't working.

My lung will be observed for the next several days/weeks

To decide if...

Another should be installed

Or

Periodic thoracentesis procedures should be done

Or???

That about wraps it up...

If you made it through this whole blog

Congratulations!!!

Dave

Hallelujah!!

It worked!!!!

The PleurX catheter drained beautifully and quickly tonight!

I don't know if it was the last flush the doctor did before I left the hospital yesterday

Or, the prayers of the many of you

Or, both:)

I do know this...

We are soooo thankful and shed tears of joy as the PleurX worked!

That's it for tonight

Just wanted to share the good news with you all:)

Dave

Setback

We were back in the ER today:(

I had a suspicion that things were heading that direction about a week ago

When my PleurX catheter stopped draining as it had been.

At first we thought it might be encouraging news

Indicating that we were getting to the bottom of the fluid in my left lung

But then I began to experience shortness of breath

A tell-tell sign that fluid was building up in my lung

And that the PleurX catheter was not working anymore as it should have been.

I gave it a few days

Since my favorite place in the world for an excursion

Is not the ER:)

However, last night when it was difficult to breathe going to bed

It became clear that today was the day for that excursion.

I headed out around 9:30am to try and beat the ER rush

And was pleasantly surprised to arrive to an empty waiting room!

(Nothing short of a miracle!!)

I didn't even get to sit down

And watch a soap on the waiting room TV

Before they brought me into the triage room

And then immediately back into a patient room!

I had only been in my room about 10 minutes

When the ER doctor came in with an ultrasound machine

To confirm that there was fluid in my lung

There was.

This was immediately followed by an X-ray which double confirmed the fluid.

This was followed by a bit of a wait to get into the IR Radiology room

Where they injected something into my PleurX catheter

To seek to break down any clots that might be plugging the catheter

So that it would drain properly.

This did not work:(

Which left the doctor a bit baffled as it seemed that the catheter

Had been cleared and flushed of any clots

And yet it still would not drain.

Sigh...

This resulted in the immediate need

To do another thoracentesis (lung drain)

In order to provide breathing relief.

This was accomplished successfully

And we were able to go home.

So...

Where do we go from here?

The doctor is going to confer with his colleagues

To try and figure out what to do next...

Try to flush it again

Put in a new PleurX

Or, take it out out completely requiring me to go into the ER every time I need my lung drained
(Note:  This would be a hard option)

Tomorrow, we will try the PleurX and see if it drains as it should

And communicate the result with the doctor.

Hopefully good news.

That's the latest in My Cancer Journey saga:)

Thanks again for caring and supporting!

Dave