Rolling with the punches

Carly
Aug 22, 2016
4 min read

It's been two months since I last wrote, the summer has had it's ups and downs and I just needed to take a break from writing. Our summer went a little something like this:

Following Trav's 7th round of Chemo we traveled down to New Hampshire and visited with my parents and eventually made our way down to Rhode Island to enjoy some time at the beach. It was nice to get away and enjoy some down time!

Travis was scheduled to have his 8th round of Chemo on June 21, we arrived at the clinic his blood was drawn, we met with his doctor and then he was brought back to the infusion room. When his labs came back it showed that his white blood cell count was too low for him to receive chemo. The new chemo (Irinotecan) had wiped out his white blood cells and his system was not strong enough to handle another dose of chemo. Disappointed only begins to describe how Travis was feeling. I think that there is a lot of mental preparation that goes into a day of Chemo for him and being all ready to do it and then being told that it's not going to happen is incredibly frustrating. Travis was rescheduled to go back the following week and try again.

On June 27th we went back to the hospital and Trav's white blood cell counts were back where they needed to be in order for him to have his 8th round of chemo. He has had some issues with blood being drawn from his port. It is common that a small clot develops and prevents blood from being drawn from the port. They gave Travis some medicine to help clean out his port, the hope is that next time he won't have as much trouble with it. Things went smoothly during his chemo and the few days after went a little better this time with the addition of more steroids. The day after his chemo Travis shaved off his beard, another side effect of this chemo is losing hair. I think that it was very difficult for Travis to do this but we are starting to get used to it. Personally I think that he looks much younger!

We traveled down to Rhode Island again for the 4th of July weekend and spent some more time with friends and family. We spent some time at the beach and were also able to take a trip to the zoo. We had a lot of fun petting baby goats and feeding deer out of our hands! Travis had not been to the zoo since he was little and really enjoyed it! It was a hot day and we did a lot of walking, Travis was definitely tired at the end of the day but nothing a little rest didn't fix. We had lobsters for dinner one night and enjoyed s'mores by the fire! Overall it was a great weekend!

Trav's 9th round of chemo had to be pushed back from July 12 to July 18th because of low white blood cell counts again. Everything went as smoothly as possible and they decided that Travis would benefit from a medication called Neulasta which helps boost white blood cell production. This would hopefully help prevent the two week wait time between chemo sessions. We were able to spend a couple of days at the end of July down at the beach again for our anniversary.

Travis and I also decided to expand our little family and adopted a puppy who we have named Spencer. We fostered him for about a week and a half before actually adopting him. He is a four month old feist mix puppy who came from a high kill shelter in Mississippi. Spencer is a small dog who loves kisses, cuddling and chasing around his brother Jack! He is totally in love with Travis and he keeps him good company when Travis isn't feeling that great.

The Neulasta did it's job and Travis was able to receive his 10th round of chemo on schedule August 2nd. Although it was a long day, things went smoothly again. Trav's doctor scheduled for a CT scan on August 16th to see if the chemo was doing what it should be. After his 10th round of chemo we made another trip down to the beach and were given the opportunity to see the Red Sox and the Patriots! Travis had some bone pain (a side effect from the Neulasta) that week which was making him very tired and uncomfortable. We were able to make it to both games but did not end up staying the whole time.

We returned to Vermont in the middle of August, spent some time with family and relaxed. Travis had his CT scan on August 16th, and we received the results the day after. Unfortunately his scan revealed that there are some new lesions on his liver. The lesions are not large but do raise some concerns. His doctor has decided to continue with the next three rounds of chemo over the next six weeks and then another CT scan. They decided not to give him chemo last week because of the scan results. Travis was not feeling well over the weekend, he was having some abdominal pain and didn't have much of an appetite. They tried to give him chemo today but his white blood cell count was really high, his doctor thinks that he might be getting over an infection. He is scheduled to have chemo on Wednesday.

This isn't really where we were hoping to be at the end of the summer, however this is where we have arrived. There are options available for Travis after he is done with the next three rounds of chemo. There is another type of chemo that they can try and a liver radiation treatment that has been discussed. We also learned that his colon cancer does not have mutations so the doctors know which treatments will be more effective with his type of cancer. For now we will continue to take things as they come, one day at a time. Thank you to everyone for your positive thoughts and prayers as we continue to fight this! We will keep you updated.