ICU Day 5 (Friday, Dec. 14, 2012)

6:00pm Update
     Eric had a ct scan and radiation on his brain. The nurse reported that it went well and he did good. He will need radiation treatment every day for 2 weeks.

3:00pm Update from Justine:
     We finally have wind on what the plan is for the metastasis in Eric's brain. It's amazing 5 doctors talked to each other to come up with the best way to go about this. The ICU doc, Oncologist, Radiologist Oncologist, Neuro Oncologist, Neuro Surgeon. The surgeon said that it's too risky to operate. One of the bigger metastasis that's in the right side of the brain controlling his left side is sitting right in between the cortex controlling his motor skills and the other is his sensory. This particular one is sitting right on the motor skills cortex which would explain why Eric's ability to move his left arm has decreased over the past three days and yet he can still feel you touch his left arm because the metastasis isn't affecting the sensory part.
 They don't want to damage Eric's ability to use his left arm. Dr. Hunter (I believe, its hard to keep them all straight) the Radiologist Oncologist came by who works in the Huntsman Cancer Center and discussed what radiation is, does, side affects, etc and it sounds like they want to get a ct scan of their own to form a plan as far as radiation treatment goes. They will hopefully get going today and Eric will get radiation treatment everyday for two weeks.

2:00pm Update from Justine:
     Dr Difiore (oncologist) came by. Today is his last day of his rounds and it will be someone else this weekend. Going to up the steroid to help with brain swelling. Hoped that I was getting sleep. I told him I have people helping. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't overwhelmed with visitors. Eric is so tired and needs his rest. Just let him know of people's support. No chemo on day 9. Bleomycin and oxygen are not friends. Can cause lung disease and fibrosis. Since Eric is on the ventilator its not a good idea to give him Bleomycin until the next round. I would guess that they will skip day 16 too. Also it’s a myth that sugar feeds cancer like crazy. Won't make any difference if he cuts out sugar or not. There has been no scientific study done.

Note: Ideally one round or cycle of Eric's chemotherapy treatment includes days 1-5, 9, and 16. So far Eric has finished 1-5 of this cycle.

1:00pm Update from Justine:
     They are not going to extubate him today (remove breathing tube). They will keep trying to progress in that direction but the cancer tumors in his lungs are being affected by the chemo and bleeding so its best to keep tubes in for atleast another day.