Day 52...snowy Sunday

Saturday, November 10, 2012

The roller coaster ride continues......weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

First of all, Dillon has had about 18 hours without vomiting.  YEAH!!!!!  We had a fantastic night with lots of sleep.  We went to bed at 10 p.m, woke once in the night for a bathroom visit, and got up at 8 a.m.  I am a new person with all that rest.  The past couple of days had wiped me out and I am rejuvenated with the sleep.  Also, my dad is with Dillon most of the day today so I have several hours to myself at the apartment to add to my rejuvenation. 

Big D had his upper and lower endoscopies yesterday.  It went without a hitch and he recovered nicely by sleeping all afternoon.

The first set of results are in from the biopsies that were taken.  Dillon's gut, in fact, has mild or early GVH.  I talked about what that is in the last post.  This is actually good news.  First of all, it is good that it is not severe GVH.  Secondly, it is good that we found out now and not weeks from now when it undoubtedly would have been worse and he would have been that much more ill.  Last week the doctor had said he would wait several more weeks before doing the endoscopy if he continued to be nauseous.....but Dillon had the increase in vomiting this week on Tuesday, which landed him back in the hospital, which spurred an immediate order for the endoscopy.  So, as always......everything happens for a reason.  We caught this early because of the flare in vomiting that my dad and I recognized as being vastly different from previous. I insisted that I wanted him admitted for further evaluation.  There is always a reason....there are no coincidences.  Thirdly, they say "a little GVH" is good....it is a great indicator that the new immune system is very strong, beginning to function well, and if there is even 1 stray cancer cell it will get obliterated by the new cells that are in overdrive in his gut.  The research shows that patients who get some level of GVH have a better outcome in the long-run.

The mild GVH is treated with 2 forms of steroids.  One will be a systemic steroid (right now it will be IV but it will eventually be a pill taken orally).  The second one is only oral and it is a sort of pill that only treats the stomach so the amount of steroid actually running through his entire system can be minimized by using this combination.  He won't be starting that one until next week some time when his stomach (hopefully) is feeling better and can tolerate the oral meds again.  This will hopefully "cure" this level of GVH. There are some that cannot be "cured" and end up being a long-term (even life-long) problem. 

The other thing that the pathologists saw on this first set of slides was fairly significant inflammation.  We don't know what is causing the inflammation, as the second set of tests and results will not be available until the middle of next week. The suspicion and most likely culprit is some sort of infection in his stomach....but we need to find out what the organism is before it can be effectively treated.

So, the long and the short of it is......there is a reason for this prolonged nausea and vomiting.  For me this is good news.  It is much easier for me to accept an actual diagnosis and subsequent plan of treatment, than it would be to accept the old.....we are not sure, lets wait and see, or try this and try that and then wait and see.  The bad news is that we will probably be in the hospital longer than we had hoped....but with any luck when we do get out again he will be in much better health and will truly enjoy his "freedom" next time around.