Sunday Evening

I came home from the hospital last night following an endoscopy and colonoscopy. Both scopes were done within 20 minutes. Talk about efficiency! The result is that the bleeding is likely due to a duodenal ulcer which we knew about before. It appears to be a chronic situation and the ulcer may bleed without warning. I am on a prescription which should heal the ulcer, but with ulcers, I guess you never know.

In addition, they found a narrowing (stenosis) in the second part of the duodenum related to a tumor. This explains the slow digestion of food and my inability to eat more. Although I have an appetite, the slow processing keeps me feeling full, thus I am not able to consume the number of calories I need to gain weight. There is a solution to this problem! In a few weeks, I will have another endoscopy and the doctor will place a stent across the narrowing in order to keep it open. The procedure should only take 20 minutes! The doctors surmise, without the stent, a complete obstruction might arise, if the tumor continues to grow. On this note, Tuesday is the final infusion for this round and then a CT scan will be taken the following week to see how the chemo is doing. Please pray we get good news on this scan.

A piece of irony, for your enjoyment: the scope showed my colon is cancer free. Funny, I have colon cancer everywhere else, except the colon! Go figure! The scan also showed the esophagus and the stomach were normal, praise the Lord!

Again, thank you for your ongoing love and prayers for us! We could not walk this path without your ongoing support. Thanks so much again!