Good News!

Gil had his tonsil - only one - taken out Wednesday, Sept. 18th. Dr. said they looked around and there was nothing in the throat that looked suspicious, even the tonsil really looked normal, but they would biopsy it and we should hear back in a few days. 

Gil was a little out of it that day, but the next day, he got up, took some meds (about a 1/3 of the prescribed dose), ate some breakfast and was talking up a storm. Outside of some obvious pain in swallowing, it was as if nothing happened! Well, he did eat cautiously the rest of the day...pudding, milk, eggs, and such. He would take small doses of the pain medication (hydrocodine/acetaminophen liquid) to eat, and a full dose to sleep. Friday he tried to sleep without it but it was a bit too soon and that set him back a little. 

We stayed home from church Sunday, but by the Wednesday he went to work and that night seemed to make a big difference. The next day he felt real good and has been without any meds since this past Friday. He is still being careful about the food he eats, staying away from fried, hard, or crunchy foods and spicy foods. 

We didn't hear from the Dr. About the tonsil for a week after the surgery, so I called the office to follow up. They called the next day and - yippee - no sign of disease!!! So I guess we are just back in recovery mode. Next, Gil has to meet with all three doctors, the ENT who did the tonsillectomy, his oncologist, and our general practitioner. After that, the next series of scans is in November, right before thanksgiving. Hopefully all continues to progress well!!

Tonsillectomy anyone?

Ok, so a few things have happened since I returned to work.
Gil had a follow up with Moffitt on August 21st. After being poked, prodded and scanned he met up with Dr. Ayala to find out how he's doing. Turns out that darned tonsil was enlarged again! From 7.5 to 11.6 (cm?...mm? don't know the unit of measure). And also 5 slightly enlarged lymph nodes in the chest. He was told it's something to keep an eye on, but the Dr. was not too concerned about it. Or so it seemed.

He had been coughing a lot, so they did give him pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to prevent a type of pneumonia that is common with stem cell transplant. After 2 days of a very sore arm, we noticed the coughing let up and the low grade fever he had been dealing with in the afternoons had stopped. I am hoping that has changed something! We will know a little bit more on that after his next follow up in November - which, by they way, will include a host of vaccines. Yup, he is starting the vaccination train the day before thanksgiving!! Yay!!

In the meantime...He had an appointment with Dr. Ball yesterday (9/5) and she's not real happy about that tonsil. How frustrating is it to treat this repeatedly, just to have that thing flare up again? Well, frustrating enough that he is going back to the ENT, Dr. Hood (that was today 9/6) and it looks like he have a tonsillectomy scheduled for Sept 18th. Finally looks like they are going to take this thing out and get a good look at it. Even the Dr. said it looked like he should have done that back in January after all.

So we feel like we are in a purgatory of sorts. Not sure if he is cancer free or not...did the stem cell transplant work or not...are we going to have to do this all over again (please, Lord, no!!)

His numbers are still doing well, although the white cells took a little dive in the last two weeks. And he's feeling pretty good these days; no dizzy spells when bending over or fever/chills late in the day.

I'll probably post something on the 18th after surgery.