September 2, 2009

They took me off of Chemo. The Chemo Dr. (Lippman) said I had a "miraculous" response to the chemo. He said he has never seen anything like it. This is the one that gave me the death sentence very gruffly, in front of Pamela and my daughter Cathy. " You are in stage four of a four stage illness. It is spreading. There is no cure! I give you one to five years, depending on how well the chemo works." Hmm. I wonder who provided the miracle. It must be the only one in the miracle business. If you think your prayers aren't working, take that! I know God did not do this so I can just live off of the fat of the land, and have a good time. He has something for me to do. I just need to find out what it is and get busy with it before he gets somebody else to do it.

They did surgery on my eye lid. It was very successful. My left eye would not close because of nerve damage that caused a sort of palsy on the left side of my face. This made my eye dry up and burn all the time.

I have neuropathy in my fingers and toes. Dr. Lippman said most people on chemo experience this. It is permanent nerve damage. I have some loss of feeling in my fingers and toes. I am even more clumsy now, but some feeling is being slowly restored.

I go back to M. D. Anderson next week to meet with the Doctors again, and begin Radiation treatments. They will also remove the stitches from my left eye lid.

I don't look forward to radiation treatments. They want 35 sessions. That is five days a week for seven weeks. That is a long time to be away from home and the office. The side effects are bad, and there will be some permanent damage, but I better just do what they say.

I did ask the Radiation Doctor if I would be able to play the piano after the treatments, and he said yes. That will be good, because I didn't know how before. I will put on a concert when I get back.

I will keep you posted.

August 11, 2009

I got a non-shiney report this time. I had a PET Scan this time. This is a test where they inject radio-active sugar in my veins, and then do a sort of an MRI. The radio-active sugar shines on the X-RAY wherever there is cancer. This determines whether the cancer has spread, among other things. I asked the Radiology Doctor if the cancer had shrunk. He said yes, the response was "fabulous." I said "How much has it shrunk?" He said "it is hard to tell definitively because of the dye." I said, "I would like a number." He said "well, it is maybe 10%." I said, "You mean that the cancer has shrunk by 10%?" He said, "no, It has shrunk by 90%."

I thought that was real good news until the next day. I asked the Chemo Doctor to confirm the number, which he did. Then I asked if the lymph node under my arm was shining. (Still there.) He said no I asked where all the cancer had spread to in the scan. He said nowhere. I said, "then the only place the cancer is showing up is on my jaw?" He said, "no, it didn't show up there either." I said, "you mean you couldn't find any cancer anywhere?" He said, "yes, thats right. We know it is still there, but it must be dormant."

We discussed my getting off of chemo treatments when I come back next time. They will just do tests, and watch it for a while.

July 22, 2009

I had chemo last Friday, and am doing fine. The Doctors used the word "fantastic" when describing my progress. I go back to Houston August 4. They will rerun some tests, and compare before and after xrays, etc. It should be a more definitive event than last trip. They said they redo the tests every other trip down there. We don't know how many chemo sessions we will need. No one does. It is all just trial and error until they can say it is all gone.

I appreciate all of your prayers and concerns. Keep it up.

June 29, 2009

We just returned from Houston with good news. They took new x-rays, CT scans, and blood tests. They said that they are very pleased with my progress, and that my tumor has shrunk considerably.

I had Chemo last Friday. I am feeling fine from it. I will have Chemo again on Friday, July 17.
The next Chemo after that is scheduled for Friday, August 7. That week they will take more tests, including a PET Scan, so the next time I will have significant news is the first week of August.

Second Chemo Treatment

On June 2 Pamela, Angela, and I returned to Houston, where we met Cathy. On Wednesday, June 3 we met with the Chemo Doctor. He was visibly shaken when he saw the tremendous progress I had made. It was almost funny. There was no facial swelling. My whole head had begun to swell like the elephant man or something, and it was all gone. I got the second chemo on June 5, and was only a little bit sick on the following Monday and Tuesday. I worked the rest of the week. I go back to Houston with Pamela on June 22. Jim and Cathy will meet us there. The Chemo Doctor wants to re do all of the tests except the PET scan. They will do a blood work up, MRI, CT scan, and x-ray. Then, on Wednesday we will compare the first slides and tests to the second ones. That will finally give us some definitive answers as to what progress we are making, as well as how to proceed.

Finally!! My first treatment!

After the news on May 8th that the cancer could not be surgically removed and radiation done, we were instructed to return to M. D. Anderson on Wednesday May 13th to meet with the Chemo Dr. On Wednesday, I was told I had stage 4 of 4, cancer that had spread to the lymph node under my left arm. I began my chemo treatments on Friday, May 15th around 6pm. From there I would have a treatment every 3 weeks. On Saturday, I woke up feeling fine. I even thought maybe they did not give me enough. We came home to Monroe, LA and on Sunday it hit me. I felt horrible. I was out of commission all week. I did not come into the office except for about 30 mins on Friday, May 22nd. I began to feel better toward the weekend. I did come to work for the afternoon on May 26th. My employees could visibly notice the swelling around my jaw and neck had drastically reduced. This coming Wednesday, June 3rd, I am to meet with the chemo Dr. At this point, we may find out more about my prognosis as it hinges on how the chemo is working. On Friday, June 5th, I am scheduled for another chemo treatment.

Chronology of cancer diagnosis and treatment

I have, as of May 11, 2009 completed a chronology as of this date. It is my intention to update this blog as more information and events become available.


JAMES W. CRAWFORD
CHRONOLOGY OF CANCER DIAGNOSIS





MID FEBRARY - - - - HAD HEADACHES, THOUGHT IT WAS COMPUTER EYE STRAIN
TOOK TYLENOL. IT DIDN’T WORK, SO I STOPPED ALL CAFFINE
IT DIDN’T WORK EITHER.
EARLY MARCH - - - - PAIN CONSENTRATED IN TWO UPPER LEFT JAW TEETH
MARCH 11 - - - - DR BAGWELL
MARCH 12 - - - - I FOUND LUMP –CALLED DR BAGWELL BACK – REFERRED ME TO DR
ALTICK
MARCH 18 - - - - DR ALTICK USED WORD TUMOR – REFERRED ME TO DR BARHAM
MARCH 23 - - - - DR BARHAM
MARCH 25 - - - - BLOOD WORK
APRIL 1 - - - - - - CT SCAN
APRIL 6 - - - - - - DR BARHAM
APRIL 14 - - - - - BIOPSY
APRIL 15 - - - - -DR BARHAM – SAID IT WAS MALIGNANT
APRIL 20 - - - - - MEET WITH DR. STURGIS AT M.D. ANDERSON
APRIL 23 - - - - - EKG, CHEST XRAY, BLOOD WORK, MRI
APRIL 24 - - - - -PET SCAN PREP; PET SCAN
APRIL 27 - - - - - DENTIST
APRIL 29 - - - - - DR. SCOTT LIPPMAN – CHEMO MAN ; DR. C. ESCALANTE; INTERNAL
MEDICINE
MAY 5 - - - - -DISCUSS BIOPSY
MAY 6 - - - - -DO BIOPSY
MAY 8 - - - - -GET RESULTS OF BOTH PET SCAN AND BIOPSY VIA PHONE
AFTER CALL TO PATIENT ADVOCATE

Mid February, 2009

I got off of caffeine because someone suggested that I was drinking a lot of coffee and tea. It didn't help much.

Feb. 2009

I began having headaches about the middle of February, 2009.
I thought it was just eye strain from looking into the computer more than usual because it was tax season. I just took a bunch of Tylenol.