Q&A Time

What is causing the pain in his side?

• The tumor.  We have to remember he is sporting an 8 cm mass on his liver.  Changes in the tumor or too much activity can aggravate the tumor and cause pain.

Why is James running fever?

• It is tumor fever.  The doc keeps sending us to the ER because if there is an infection in the liver it could be dangerous.  However, James' blood work and cultures continue to prove his liver is functioning fine and it is just the tumor causing the fever.
• Unless James develops new symptoms, we do not have to go to the ER for fever anymore.

What is causing James to be so anemic?

• Iron deficiency caused by so much chemo.
• Because of so much chemo, his body is not producing red blood cells as fast and the red blood cells are not lasing as long in circulation.
• All these things will fix themselves in time.  For now, I am working in extra red meat, leafy green veggies, and beans into the diet.\

Is surgery still an option?

• No.  Dr. Curley is not willing to risk doing surgery at this time.  It is too hard to tell how many lymphnodes are involved and the risk of leaving affected ones behind is too great.

No surgery, no clinical trials, now what?

• Another new chemo.  It is not specific to germ cell tumors but has strength to possibly take care of this!
• Perks
• This chemo is totally different than anything else we've tried.
• It is, to quote our favorite doc, "a helluva lot" easire on James' body.
• No major organs are affected.
• Counts should not drop as low.  The two WBC shots should not be needed.
• This new schedule is the easiest one yet...Three hours, One day a week, Every other week!
• Side effects
• James has to be on a pump for 48hrs after chemo.  This has been his only complaint all along
• Numbness and tingling in the fingers and toes but nothing permanent
• Might not work but there are no guarntees in this life, right?
• Can cause some tummy troubles but we have a pharmacy of nausea meds so we should be set!

I am working as much as possible this week.  James and Tate will be chillin at home out of this awful heat!  I will share some pics of our KY trip soon!
Love to all!
Amy