[DCART] How's Bob (N6YMA) doing?

[Wplewis2 at cs.com]

Will, please feel free to pass this on to everyone...

Howdy, everyone! I had two rounds of visits with the doctors this past week
as well as some tests and a bit of a scare. 

The first visit was with the neurosurgeon and the radiation oncologist to
discuss my brain tumors and recent brain MRI. It turns out that one of the
brain tumors is gone altogether (the small one) and the large one, which was
2.5cm in diameter, is now just 2.5mm in diameter. Best of all there are no
new brain tumors showing. Hooray! Looking at the brain MRIs on the hospital
computers was really cool. It is amazing how fine the resolution in the MRIs
is and how much detail you can see on their monitors.

I just finished the second 4 week IL-2 treatment. We don't know yet if it
has had any real effect on the tumors in my liver and lungs. We'll take a CT
scan in August that will tell us. Between now and then I get to take time
off from treatment and enjoy life :)

They gave me a bone scan today to see if they can locate the cause of the
pain in my lower back and in my ribs on the right. Kidney cancer has a nasty
habit of eating away bone structure and leaving holes behind. I hope that
isn't what is going on. I should get the test results back soon.

As for the scare, my INR (which measures the speed with which your blood
clots) is supposed to be maintained between 2.0 and 3.0; 'normal' is 1.0.
Mine was measured this Thursday at 4.0 which means my blood clots _way_ too
slowly too be safe. The anti-coagulation clinic wanted me to call them as
they were worried, but as I was at the hospital last Thursday I just dropped
in to see them. They did an INR measurement on a portable tester and the
result came out at 4.7! Yikes! I could be bleeding internally and not know
it. A cut would be very dangerous... So, they rushed me into the hematology
lab to get blood drawn and get a STAT lab test run. It did take quite a
while for the puncture in my arm to stop bleeding... Later they called and
the lab result was 3.1 - still outside my approved range but _way_ better
than the 4.7! It looks like they need to calibrate the portable tester again
:)

In general I'm doing Ok: a bit tired, having fatigue, chills and fevers from
the IL-2 but most days I don't feel too badly. Now that I'm off the IL-2 I
expect to feel better in a few days. I still need a nap most days but I can
walk 3 miles again, even though it is pretty painful. Hopefully that will
get better.

I hope all of you are doing well. I sure am looking forward to seeing all of
you again, soon.

73, Bob N6YMA

P.S. I got a call from the hospital this morning (Monday). The bone scan
shows a tumor in the sacroiliac which is where the pain seems to be
originating. We're working on setting up an appointment with the radiation
oncologist ASAP. Sigh. 

------------------------------------------------------- 
Bob Evans Bob at BobAndMerrilyEvans.Org
2158 Harrison Street Home: 408-423-8704
Santa Clara, CA 95050 Cell: 775-450-4543


73, 
Will Lewis, KD7NIR