Latest updates and my thoughts on Coronavirus

Wow it's been a long time since I've updated this! Honestly, I didn't want to. It was the same old same old and when the winter months hit, I retreat into myself and don't want to emerge. I probably have a touch of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and then add Coranavirus hibernation on top of that?! No thank you!

So Scott had his colonoscopy and endoscopy on Valentine's Day. He was able to get the same doctor. We were happy to see him again and he was happy to see us. He commented on how romantic our Valentine's date was 😄 and also how Scott had lost a lot of weight. I couldn't tell if that was a compliment or not. He'd lost about 30 pounds at this point and I think he looked good and was at a healthy weight, but maybe I'm the only one. After meeting with the doctor for a few minutes, I went to wait in the waiting room until he was done. I'd only been out there a few minutes when the nurse came hurriedly out to get me. My first thought was, Oh no, something has happened and he's gonna die. The nurse didn't say anything as we walked quickly back to the room. As she opened the door, she said that the doctor said it would be okay for me to watch, and asked if I wanted to. "Heck ya," I replied. (I'm so glad it was that, and not my original thought). Yah, I'm weird like that. Medical stuff is kind of fascinating to me. So I got to stand there and watch as the doctor guided the tubes. First we looked at the endoscopy, which was a tube down his throat. He showed me several bleeding ulcers (hmmm) and he said his stomach looked like hamburger. Then he asked me if Scott was taking any vitamin supplements and I proceeded to tell me that he shouldn't take so many because they can be hazardous to his stomach. I wanted to ask him what vitamins he should take, but thought that should wait for another time, when my husband was coherent enough to be part of the conversation. Then the doctor showed me the inside of the colon. He showed me that the tumor is still there, but so so so small that it's almost nothing. Yay! He then showed me that the polyps that he had last year were really small too and he removed what was left of them. Overall, his colon looked fairly healthy. It was his esophagus and stomach that he was concerned with. Along with the ulcers, he also found that he has a hiatal hernia. The opening to your stomach has a flap that is supposed to stay closed unless food is entering into it. Scott's is open all the time and part of his stomach is pushing up into his esophagus. I know, kind of gross, but that explains the acid reflux that he has had FOREVER and been on medication for. At the time of his endoscopy, he hadn't been taking the medication and had been doing a number of natural treatments, and found some relief, but not a lot. The doctor suggested he continue to take his medication and he actually increased the dosage to four times what he was taking! (We got that fixed the next day when we called his office. Scott found relief from taking just the regular amount he had been taking.) After Scott came out of anesthesia, he came in to talk to us. He explained about the hiatal hernia and when I asked what could be done, he said surgery could be performed but he wouldn't do it now because of Scott's condition. Of course! Scott wondered if the issues he had with his stomach could be related to the chemo. The doctor said there's no way to know unless he had a totally healthy stomach in the first place and these issues only happened after he started chemo. That makes sense. Then he suggested that he lay off the vitamin and mineral supplements but was very vague as to what amounts, if any, he should be taking, which is understandable because he's not a nutritionist. I called his office the next day with some follow up questions and his assistant suggested some supplements we could buy online for gastric bypass patients (which he's not, but does has some of the same issues as them) and also told us to follow up with his oncologist. Uh, no, I thought. An oncologist will not know about vitamins! More frustration came when I found out that nutritionists, who do know a lot about vitamins and how much we should take, etc., are NOT covered by insurance. Of course! I was talking with a neighbor a few days later and she said she used to work for a doctor's office who had a nutritionist as part of their family practice clinic and insurance would cover that. Yay! Another tender mercy. I called and we made an appointment with her. She was helpful and she did a bunch of tests on his blood and went over the results with us. She didn't know if he should be taking more or less of certain supplements as a cancer patient. Did you know that if you have cancer your body needs more of certain vitamins and less of others? I found that out in my research since the procedure with the GI doc. Until we meet with an expert in cancer nutrition, which is another thing on the list, Scott will just take the basic vitamins that she suggested, but he's not going to stop all together like the GI doc suggested. He needs SOME nourishment besides just good food if his body is going to heal properly.

So basically, in a nutshell, the last few months have been more questions than answers, which is par for the course. Scott did four chemo treatments, from January through March, with the new chemo drug, but after his last scan in April, when it showed that things weren't shrinking, he decided to be done. Part of his decision was because of COVID. If chemo treatments lower your immune system, and people with a lower immune system are more susceptible to COVID, than why bother? It wasn't working anyway. He didn't want to add COVID to his list of health concerns.

So these are my thoughts on COVID and the self-quarantine and social distancing that have been happening for the last few months:
1. Welcome to my life! Being extra cautious about germs, and distancing ourselves from others in an effort to keep Scott healthy has been something we've all been doing for over a year. True, our kids are a little more willing to wash their hands often now that "everyone else is doing it," but our life hasn't changed that much, except for the at-home school part and not hanging out with friends as much. I actually enjoyed having my kids at home for school. My ninth-grader was struggling in school, both academically and socially, so I was so relieved when he got to spend his last quarter of the school year home with me. And he passed everything with decent grades. 😃
2. Whether you're an introvert or extrovert, we all need people in our lives, to help us connect and even to heal. Some people need more social interaction than others. For me, I know I'm an introvert, but I also know I still need other people in my life, besides my immediate family, once in a while. I'm sure many people have used social distancing as an excuse to NOT interact with anyone else, but sooner or later, you have to have human interaction. Even Tom Hanks needed his friend, Wilson the volleyball, when he was stranded on a desert island.This social isolation has gone on long enough, and I'm glad things are slowly opening back up, with added safety precautions. I hope we've all learned to take extra precautions to stay safe. And for all those who have experienced depression or anxiety during this time due to all the changes and/or social isolation, I get it and I'm here for you.
3. The BEST part of everything shutting down has been that we can have church together as a family. Since Scott's diagnosis, he's only been a handful of times with us and after our oldest son graduated high school he started attending a church in a different area with his single adult friends, so it's been fantastic to have church in our home all together. I'm fine if it stays that way for a LONG time. I'll just do the church thing when there's a social activity and continue to worship at home with my husband and kids.

Boy it felt good to update the blog, finally! Now that I have soooo much more time because I am on vacation (sort of) away form my kids and crazy life. The next few posts will be about our adventures in Mexico at the Hope4Cancer Treatment center. It has been an amazing ride just getting here and we have seen so many miracles in this process. I'll explain more in future posts. For now, thank you so much for reading this! Until next time!