New Treatment Plan

Gus has been on his new treatment plan for ten days now. Nothing drastic has happened with side effects other than weight loss. Gus has lost ten pounds in the last two weeks . . . seven of those pounds in the last week. This has become the biggest concern for everyone involved.

Gus’ appetite is good and he concentrates on eating throughout his day. He is getting so frustrated. No matter how hard he tries, the scales will not reward him.

We questioned the doctors as to why the sudden change with Gus’ treatment plan. The decision was based on Gus’ symptoms April 6th when we had met with our oncologist. We don’t disagree; we just felt the other treatment plan was still very effective and we knew how he tolerated it.

The CA 19-9 taken April 27th was great. It was 58, which is almost in the normal range. We were surprised the positive numbers on the CA 19-9 didn’t have more influence with the doctor than it did. Gus’ other symptoms of pain and fatigue seem to be more of what the doctor is concerned with than what the CA 19-9 shows. I feel so much of the fatigue he is experiencing is because of the narcotic pain killers. He is drugged all the time.

Another note of interest, the oncology pharmacist in Bozeman has been studying reports on the toxicity of the drug given to Gus in the infusion room. She has discovered that the faster it is infused, the less toxic to Gus. So after 1 ½ years of being on this chemo, the last two times Gus has received it, it took only 30 minutes as opposed to 90 minutes. The oncologist also increased the dose because it is the only traditional chemo Gus is receiving now.

The PA we met with on Tuesday worked in a VA hospital oncology department for 13 years. In all that time, she can only remember one patient having pancreatic cancer. They have at least three patients right now in Bozeman being treated for pancreatic cancer.