I'd like to buy a vowel Vanna...

In this crazy spinning wheel of cancer, we have had the 
added fun (and I use the word "fun" very very loosely here) 
of having learned some new words.

Words like:

Cholangiocarcinoma

Cisplatin

Bilirubin 

Gemcitabine


And so on.

Today we learned some NEW words, you know, to keep us on
our toes.

I'll be damned if my toes aren't getting tired though.

Boy do we love new words!  (Insert sarcastic voice here)

Today we learned Ascites and Paracentesis.

So Pat and Vanna?  We will take the vowel "A"
and the letter "P" to add to our vocabulary.

Kyle and Josh had a fun double birthday weekend in 
Chicago this past weekend.

Right before Kyle left I told him "UM, I think your
belly looks a little swollen."

To which he just said "I'm fat."

Long story VERY short, his belly was indeed swollen and he
told me via text coming home from Chicago that it
had gotten even MORE swollen.

He had spent a day going back and forth in calls/emails
with his P.A. here and didn't want to ruin his trip 
with Josh and so he wouldn't do anything until the trip
was done.

I told him I would personally murder him if he ever lied
to me again, or didn't tell me about something that was 
going on.

I am not sure if he took my threat seriously or not.

So I took a day off of work to go to the Doctor with him
today as he was scheduled for chemo.

We had no clue what the day would hold with this
new symptom, and I wanted to be prepared to support him.

And because for the first time EVER, Kyle told 
me "I'm scared."  I'm sure it wasn't easy to say,
and it definitely wasn't easy to hear.

Kyle puts on a dang good face ALL of the time, but
what people don't see is the "behind the scenes Kyle."

This chemo, and this cancer, has taken a toll on both
body and soul in almost 20 months of fighting it.

On both of us.
--------------------

Back to today.

-------------------

So today we met with a new Dr. who confirmed that indeed Kyle
did have ascites (which is fluid accumulated in his 
abdomen) and should Kyle wish, they could drain it.

As he thought about it, Heidi (his sister) and I insisted 
he have the procedure done.

He was in a LOT of pain from it.

He lost 7 pounds and about 6 liters of fluid in 5 minutes.

If there ever was a diet to patent this would be it!
Albeit it for a very awful reason.

It was horrifying and amazing to watch this process
being done to him and he's a little sore after
having a 7 cm needle stuck into his side and poked around.

And I didn't take any snaps of the fluid, I may regret 
that later.  Who doesn't want a picture of straw yellow
abdominal fluid sitting in gallon sized containers for
their posterity? 

Now here's the worrisome news....

Ascites with this cancer is never a "good sign",
and as we've said over and over we can go from good
to bad on the turn of a dime.

They took some fluid to the lab for testing because they
want to see if there are cancer cells in it (if so it 
could indicate that the cancer has spread to his peritoneum
and is causing back up.)

OR it could be that his liver function is starting to 
fail and it can't get rid of the fluid that is normally
processed through it.

OR it could mean he has a blocked bile duct from cancer
and again the liver is not functioning as it should.

OR it could mean his kidneys are failing from the chemo.
(However this "OR" has been crossed off the list, since
his kidney function blood work today was stellar).

His liver proteins are not looking so hot though and have 
been trending up (which is bad-ish).

And no one is sure if his liver has taken a hit from
19 months of chemo and/or 2 Y-90 treatments (which also
kill and damage good, healthy liver tissue as well as kill
bad cancer)

We spent from 8:45 until 4:45 up there today and ran
out of time for a CT scan.  

That will be done tomorrow to show the Doc if his
cancer has "exploded" since his last scan.

The blood work and lab work from the ascites drainage
will show us more about what the cancer is doing.

Once we have more answers, we will be able to see the 
bigger picture.

So until then we wait.

And I ask for my final letter.

You know what it is, if you've been reading long
enough.

I will take the letter "F" please Vanna.

And that's what I've got for today.