At 4:30 am on Sunday morning Tom and I looked out the window and saw rain. I opted to get more sleep, but my experienced husband said, lets get moving we don't know what we'll run into around Lansing. His prediction was correct and we had a white knuckle drive all the way to Detroit. We arrived on time but exhausted. Tom's first scan was his MRI and then we spent the afternoon shopping for each other for Christmas deals...and we got them :)
We settled down at the Henry Ford Guest Housing Sunday night and were sleeping soundly when at 12:02 am the fire alarm went off and we needed to evacuate the building. Tom was not patient with me as I was getting dressed because I refused to stand outside in my silk nightgown in a blizzard. After about 1/2 an hour of total confusion we were allowed back up to our rooms with the explanation of the "Residency floors fire alarm was accidentally pulled!" I felt sorry for the parents of the 6 infants I saw walking around.
Monday we bounced back & forth between West Bloomfield and Detroit hospitals. It was sunny but bitterly cold. After all the contrast & radioactive meds that Tom was given, he was ready to head back to the room. I have to say that all the time spent waiting between tests and driving between hospitals was exhausting!
Tuesday morning we were called into Dr. Ali's office early as he needed to leave the hospital before our appointed time. Luckily we were just across the courtyard and ready to go when we got the call. Dr. Ali met us at the reception room and ushered us into a room to hear the results. He said that he was pleased with the results from the scans. All the tumors were stable and there was no new areas of growth. Dr. Ali commented about Tom's weight loss, he was down another 4 pounds this month. He is almost back to what he weighed in High School. As long as the blood work shows that his levels remain satisfactory they will not worry about his weight loss yet. They talked about the severity of the side effects to the drug and decided to keep Tom on the current dose. I find it interesting how this drug effects patients differently. Tom is the only patient in the Detroit study who is showing rapid weight loss as well as his cool new hair color.
We were told that this study will be completed at the first of the year. It is our understanding that while the drug company moves towards FDA approval Tom will still be allowed access to the drug. We are hoping that this will mean less trips to Detroit. The drive home void of stress, we just couldn't wait to get there!
The side effect of the chemo along with the 12 hour night shifts have become too much for Tom. His doctor is placing him back on disability effective December 29 (he never wanted Tom to return back to work in the first place). This will be Tom's last weekend of working nights. While I know he struggles with this decision he has finally accepted that his doctor, friends, and most of all his wife are right. I am looking forward to having my Mr. Mom at home again.
Psalms 95:6-7 Come, kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God. We are his sheep and he is our Shepherd. Oh, that you would hear him calling you today and come to him!
