Christina: All, I would like you all to please add the brother of one of my dearest, oldest and closest friends on to the hope mail chain. Here's some info about VP, he lives in Tennessee and is very ill. Thanks so much for praying with me.
Just wanted to send a positive update on VP. Each time I’ve spoke to him in the past few days he sounds really good and in excellent spirits. Today I listened to a good 5 minute Voice mail on how good he feels, how blessed he is, and how blessed he is to have the loving family and friends he has.
As you may have known, Vance was scheduled to have a radiation treatment on the area of his removed brain tumor -4/7/09. All went well and he’s feeling remarkably good so soon after the treatment. Most often a patient receiving this kind of radiation treatment is expected to feel pre operative systems for at least a week. He has only experienced a slight light headedness. No headaches or nausea. He’s expected to take steroids for 7 days to keep any swelling down.
Last week - Vance did have a “hiccup” in his recovery progression. He felt himself increasingly short of breath. He thought it would get better after a few days. Well needless to say, he wound up in the emergency room being diagnosed with having a pulmonary embolism in his right bottom lung and a partial pulmonary infarct in his lower left lung. They are currently treating him with blood thinners to dissolve the blood clots. As serious as this is, I understand that this (pulmonary embolisms) is quite common among patients who have had major surgeries. It is particularly dangerous for those who have had brain surgery as they are not supposed to take any blood thinners for at least 14 days after surgery. We can thank God that 24 days had passed for VP and he was out of the “danger zone”. He will continue to take the blood thinner meds until his blood level reads 2.5-3. (Not sure what that means either but it’s in my notes). Also taking these meds had no effect on his radiation treatment. He says that he can almost take a full breath now and that it’s getting easier to breath with each passing day.
Next Steps - Vance will be going in for immunotherapy 6 weeks from now. I know you’re saying “What?”, but the spots on his lungs are extremely small (less than 2mm) and they have a base line to be able to determine any growth over this time. According to the doctors, the end results will be the same whether he has it done today or in 6 weeks. The 6 weeks will give him time to heal and be better prepared for the upcoming treatment. To make sure everyone is on the right track, Vance and Amanda will also be seeking a second opinion from the MD Anderson doctors.
As for the remaining tumor on his kidney, that will be the last phase of the treatment. I will keep you posted as I know more.
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