Two Weeks in.....

It's been two weeks since we figured out what was going on with Travis. His pain started over a month ago, he kept telling me he had a pain under his right rib cage. It kept getting worse and no matter how much I nagged him he wouldn't go to the the Doctor. Eventually after about a month the pain got to be so bad that he agreed to go. After a week of dealing with various doctors we eventually went to the Emergency Room because Travis was in a lot of pain and no one seemed to want to help him in a timely manner. Friday February 26, 2106 he was admitted to the ER and he had blood drawn and a CT Scan done. The results were that he had numerous lesions on his liver and they appeared to be cancer. The doctor informed us, that because it was 6pm on a Friday there was not much further that could be done. Specialist don't work on evening and weekends, so no one would be able to give us further information or answer any of our questions until Monday. They gave us the option of staying in the hospital for the weekend, or giving Travis some pain meds and going home. We chose to go home.

The following week we met with his primary care physician who then referred us to a specialist. The meeting with the specialist (hematologist/oncologist) was on Thursday March 3. After a preliminary review of Travis's symptoms and pain they informed us that he most likely had colon cancer. The next week would be filled with appointments to confirm this and find out if it had spread beyond the liver into the lungs. Friday they called to inform us of his upcoming appointments: Colonoscopy Monday, CT Chest Scan Tuesday, Results on Thursday. A busy week to say the least.

Prep for the Colonoscopy on Monday was not pretty but the procedure went smoothly. They told us that they got what they needed in order to do the biopsy. The CT Scan the next day was quick and easy but Travis still wasn't feeling well from the day before. Thursday March 10 we met with his doctor again and they confirmed that it was in fact colon cancer that has spread to his liver. They said they cannot confirm all of the details yet because they need to do another biopsy this time with tissue from his liver. Monday March 14, he will be having a port put in, a liver biopsy and immediately following he will have his first round of chemo. If you are wondering what a port is, it is basically a small disc that sits under the skin and is connected to a tube and then to a vein/artery. The port is used to both administer chemo and draw blood, essentially to avoid people from having to be poked with needles regularly in their arms.

Since we found out about all of this it has been a bit of a whirlwind. It kind of feels like everything that we knew about our lives and our future has been turned upside down. We are very fortunate to have amazing friends and family that are right by our side through all of this. I cannot thank them enough!! We don't know what things will look like down the road, all we know is that we are ready to fight this and we have HOPE that Travis will get better!!

#cancer #coloncancer #ER #colonoscopy