Good News - Debbie's Caring Bridge Post From 9/21/2016

SO happy to report our good news!

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 9/21/2016

Both of our appointments went really well today! Every time we get good news, I am SO thankful to God for being so good to us! He is such an amazing God! 

Scott's blood counts look really good, and Dr. Charlson was really happy to see that! There were no new tumors in his peritoneum, lungs, or elsewhere. The tumors in his liver all seemed to shrink, even if it was minimal. We'll take what we can get!

Our plan moving forward is to have a PET scan on October 3rd or 4th. We will meet with Dr. Charlson on October 6th to get results. The reason for doing this PET scan is to see what the uptake is in the tumors  located in his liver. The uptake shows how much activity the cancer is displaying in the tumors.

Once we get the results, we'll decide if Scott should do maintenance chemo. Dr. Charlson thinks that it might be a good idea since we've worked so hard to get where we are today! Scott has endured so much mentally and physically, that we might want to keep fighting this with everything we've got. We still aren't sure though. Having a break surely is nice for all of us, especially Scott!

Our doctors reminded us that this isn't the end of the road by any means. However, we are all really happy with where we are today! 

I love finding the good and positive things in every day life. We have so much to be happy about and thankful to our gracious God for. Today, we thank him for answering so many prayers for Scott.

We truly appreciate each and every positive thought and prayer for Scott and our family! Support from friends and family means so much to us! 

Prayers For Scott's CT Scan

Back to posting after a 2 1/2 week break

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 21 hours ago

It has been nice to not worry about appointments and/or treatment for 3 weeks. I know that Scott enjoyed the break from Froedtert! 

During the nice break from treatment, Scott celebrated his 39th birthday! We are so thankful that God blessed him with another year! We continue to pray for many more birthdays that we get to celebrate with him! Next September is the big 4-0!!!

We've been really busy with VB for the girls and cross country and football for Tyler! I like staying busy, because it keeps our minds focused on the kids and having fun, rather than sitting around thinking. 

This Tuesday, Scott will have labs and a CT scan. We will go together on Wednesday to meet with Dr. Firat, his radiologist first. Then we have a meeting with Dr. Charlson, his oncologist. We will get the CT results from him, and then discuss future treatment based on the results.

This scan is going to tell us if the cancer is still gone in his peritoneum and if the cancer in his liver has changed at all in size. 

Scott has been feeling decent. He's definitely not feeling great, but much better than he did during the radiation. 

Please keep us in your prayers throughout the week as we have to wait for results and make decisions about future treatment. Even after almost a year and a half of dealing with this, it doesn't get any easier. God continues to be with us and give us the strength that we all need to get through it.

Behind on Updates About Scott - Part 2 - Here Are The 2 Most Recent Caring Bridge Posts

Back to busy schedules

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 8/22/2016

The kids started school today. Scott got up early to have French toast, bacon and sausage made for the kids by 6:45. I thought that was so sweet of him, especially since mornings are the hardest time of day for him.

We both took the kids to school at 7:30 and picked up Joshua. Joshua is our Kindergarten teacher, Nicole Wickland's (Brian Wickland) 4 month old son. I will watch him every day while Nicole teaches. It is the perfect fit for both of our families! 

Scott has been doing amazingly well with his radiation! He only has 2 days left, finishing on Wednesday!!! He is really good at continuing to live as normally as possible, even though he doesn't feel very good. Some days are better than others. If you see him, you would never know what he has been through and is currently enduring!

We hear the saying quite often, "You look great!" He really does look good. He has managed to maintain his weight around 170 lbs. 

After his 11:30 radiation tomorrow, we meet with Dr. Firat. I plan on asking him if he has any idea what our next step in treatment will be. He is just the radiologist, so he probably won't know. His portion of Scott's treatment is almost done. We will have to schedule an appointment with his oncologist, Dr. Charlson soon. 

For now, we just continue to enjoy our time together. Volleyball starts tomorrow for Hannah, Wednesday for Lexi, and Tyler's 1st Cross country meet is this Saturday. Sports keep us busy.

Much needed break!

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 9/1/2016

Scott finished his 20th/final (WAR) whole abdominal radiation on Wednesday, August 24th!!! We met with his oncologist on Monday, August 29th. He had labs done that day as well, and his counts look pretty good. Dr. Charlson and his radiologist Dr. Firat were very impressed with how well Scott did through his month of intense radiation! There wasn't much to discuss with Dr. Charlson, except for setting up our next appointment.

Scott's next visit will be to have a CT scan done on September 20th. We'll get results on September 21st. This is the day that we will have to make some big decisions. Depending on how the CT scan looks, we may have to decide whether or not to do maintenance chemo. For now, we're trying not to think too much about the future, but just enjoy the 3 weeks we have without any appointments! Scott really deserves a break from hospitals, and I'm so glad that he's getting it!

The side effects from radiation could last up to 3 weeks from the time it ends. He's been done for a week, and he's still experiencing them. He has the worst nausea when he wakes up in the morning. He gets worn out easily, but continues to push himself every day. His appetite isn't very good. He eats when he's hungry, but he still can't eat much at a time. 

I'm so proud of him for the attitude that he has been displaying around the house lately! Even though he isn't feeling good, he is positive, funny (especially with the kids), and motivated! I love seeing him goof around and laugh so hard that it hurts his stomach and he begs us to stop making him laugh! Don't get me wrong. I don't want him to be in pain, but man is it great to see such joy!

It's hard to explain it in words, but he has come so far! Please continue to pray for his spirits to remain positive and uplifted! Please pray for all of us as he continues to fight! There are different challenges that arise in our family every day, just like everyone else! 

We did a bathroom makeover on the bathroom on our main floor. We finished in 4 days. We all played a part. I love how it turned out! It's so small that it's hard to get pictures. 😀

Scott cleaned the garage yesterday and mowed the grass today. It's not easy for him to do these things like it used to be. That makes me appreciate him and all that he does for our family even more! I'm blessed to have such a hard worker in my life! God is good all of the time! 💜  

Enjoy the the long weekend everyone!

Behind on Updates About Scott - Part 1 - Here are 3 Caring Bridge Posts

Sorry I've been slacking with posting updates about Scott.  I just looked at the Caring Bridge site and realized I am 5 posts behind.  So, I'm going to share 3 updates (in order) on this post and 3 updates on another post.

Hospital stay at Froedtert

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 8/2/2016

Scott and I and our kids got home from camping up north with the Heiman family clan around 10:30PM on Sunday night. It was great to spend time with everyone and see family that we hadn't seen in over a year!

Scott started feeling nauseous around 3AM, less than 5 hours after getting home. I'm glad we were home though! At least he was in our bed, with a bathroom close by.

I didn't know that he was feeling sick until he got up for radiation treatment on Monday morning. Somehow, he made it through treatment, before getting home and laying in bed the entire day. He got physically sick a couple times, was very weak, and felt terrible!

By 9:30PM or so, I was getting more and more worried about his symptoms. He didn't know I was calling the nurse line, and I knew he wouldn't be happy. The on call Doctor for Radiation Oncology called and said that he was concerned about the symptoms Scott was experiencing and wanted me to get him to the ER to be checked out. His body has been through a lot this past 16 months, especially these last 2 months!

We got to the ER around 11 PM and got a room immediately. We had been called in by the doctor, so we skipped ahead of a very busy crowd in the ER that night. 

We were in the ER for 5 hours before they got us our own room in the hospital at 4AM. 

They decided des they would need to keep him tonight (Tuesday) as well. They will see how he is doing tomorrow before they decide if he can go home. 

The doctors and nurses are trying to resolve some digestive issues that he is experiencing. He has been experiencing pain and nausea. It is getting better as time goes on.

Thank you for your continued prayers. I hope that we can get some sleep tonight and be able to go home tomorrow. 

We feel so blessed by the outpouring of love for us and our children! We haven't had to worry about them while we're here, because many friends have lovingly stepped in to help us! Thank you to each and every one of you. Some people offered to do things, but our kids were already busy. Thanks for being so selfless and helping us in our current need. We are truly humbled by your love!

Scott and Debbie

Radiation

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 8/4/2016

We are back at Froedtert again, but this time it's just for outpatient radiation. We never stay away from this place for long.

We got home yesterday around 2:30PM. The blood cultures they took in the ER on Monday night take 72 hours to come back. Hopefully those all come back normal. I'm not even sure what they might be looking for. 

Scott is feeling much better, but not the greatest yet. For the most part, his nausea is gone, but it comes back every now and then. He has not gotten physically sick since yesterday (early morning). 

We will just continue to pray for him to feel better as time goes on. The further he gets into this month of radiation will tell us how he handles it. Today is only the 6th treatment.
14 more to go!

Halfway done with radiation!

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 8/10/2016

Today was Scott's 10th day of radiation out of 20! He is often very tired. He's nauseous when he first wakes up. Some days it lasts longer than others.

He spends a lot of time sleeping, resting, and watching the Olympics.

Please continue to pray for the 2nd half of his treatments. I pray the fatigue and nausea don't get any worse for him.

He has been doing a pretty good job of eating small portions when he feels good enough throughout the day. He has only lost a couple pounds since radiation began. I'm glad he's pretty much maintaining his weight.

That's about all I have to report for now. School starts in a week and a half. I'm sad that summer is almost over. It was way too short for our family this year!