It's been a while/Great News!

Its been a while since I posted any updates.  Casey has been doing very well as far as his cancer goes.  He has not had any side effects in about two weeks!!  Which is awesome, but there's always got to be something!!  I so wanted him to enjoy his Christmas break with the kids and our families...but about a week and a half ago, he started having some excruciating pain in his jaw.  He waited a while to make sure it just wasnt a side effect of the chemo; but the pain just kept getting worse as the days progressed.  So, he made an appointment with his doctor.  It turns out that his wisdom teeth on top and bottom were impacted and coming in sideways!!  Great!  When will he ever catch a break?!  He visited an oral surgeon for an evaluation and the Doc decided he needed oral surgery to remove the impacted wisdom teeth!  Just wonderful!  Even the smallest dental procedure is a major thing for a transplant patient.  So he had to wait three days before he could have the surgery...poor thing had to endure pain for three more days... so that he could take an antibiotic before the surgery and must continue to take them after the surgery.  His oral surgery was on Monday, Jan. 21st.  Everything went well!  Except for a few days later, the pain got worse!!!  As if the poor thing hasn't been through enough!!  They prescribed him some pain meds but not even two at a time would work!  They would only make him loopy!!  We had another interesting episode while watching TV together after having had taken some pain meds.  He decided he wanted to get inside the TV!!  He was interacting with the show Nip/Tuck!  LOL!  Thank God he didn't try to be a plastic surgeon and perform surgery on me!!  Good times, good times!!  ;o) The pain has lasted a whole week after the surgery so I made him call the doctor.  He had an appointment today after his CT Scan at Baylor...I will get to that later!  The doctor said that he did not have dry socket and everything looked good.  But what he was doing at night and probably throughout the day during his naps was clenching his teeth.  The pressure he was putting on the certain spots where the surgery took place was causing his pain.  So they prescribed him some muscle relaxers.  Can't wait to see how goofy those pills make him!

Now, back to the CT scan.  His liver transplant surgeon needed to write to the Regional Board in order to get Casey higher up on the  list for a liver transplant.  A CT scan needed to be done so that the results could be submitted with the letter.  The doc emailed me about an hour ago and said that his tumor/cancer looks better!!!!  Thank God!!!!  He said it looks smaller and has definitely not spread elsewhere!!  He also informed me that he was granted 34 points on the MELD (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) score. 
For those of you who don't know...the lower the MELD score, the higher you are on the transplant list.  When he got his transplant last year, he was at a 24 and that put him at the top of the list.  He was alot worse off then, symptom-wise...so being at a 34 now is absolutely awesome!!!  Please keep praying!  Casey has been through so much already and he is so young!  He has got so much to look forward to and is staying incredibly positive throughout all this!!

YAY for Casey!

Casey is really excited today!!  He got a promotion at work.  He is now FELONY INVESTIGATOR and he gets his own office!  Guess what his decor will consist of ?  You got it!  Harley Davidson! :o)

He was feeling pretty pitiful yesterday.  I stayed home from work to take care of him.  His joints were aching really badly and could barely get out of bed.  The meds that were prescribed for inflammation are not working!!   He feels a little better today.  He was able to go to work for half a day!

Now he can barely sit still because of the excitement over the news of his promotion!

Day two after 2nd Chemo

Casey is doing a little better after his 2nd chemo treatment than he did on his 1st.  He is not feeling nauseous at all...just a little tired with some pain in his joints.  The doctor prescribed him an anti-inflammatory to take twice a day after his chemo to prevent the excruciating pain he had last time.  He is losing most of his eyebrows and eyelashes as well as his facial hair.  His head is nice and shiny now!!

2nd Chemotherapy

Casey had another long day at Baylor-Dallas.  He left at 7:30 am and did not get home until 7:30 pm!!  He had a dr appt at 9am and then his chemo treatment did not start until around noon.  They finished with his treatment around 5:45 pm.  Traffic sucked as usual so it took him about an hour and a half to get home!  He's exhausted!!!  Not only from the long day but the treatments take all the energy out of him!  He's taking a nap right now and then we are having a late dinner.

Relieved and Excited!!!

I just heard from Casey.  He had an Oncologist appt today before his chemo treatment.  He had blood work drawn and everything looks great!!  The doctor is very confident that the chemo is working because Casey has not been having the lower abdominal pains that he was having when he first got sick a couple of months ago!!!!  He will be doing a CT Scan in three weeks when he goes in for his 3rd chemo treatment and every other treatment after that to check his progress.  Both doctor and Casey are very positive!!!

Last night's scare was due to Casey not eating a very hearty lunch!!  He has to eat three square meals a day and snack as much as he can.  He has to eat almost three times as normal to stay healthy as the tumor is sucking all the nutrition out of him!!  Stoopid Tumor!! ;o)

Concerned...

Casey started feeling strange last night around 9pm.  He said his heart was racing and he felt jittery.  We checked his blood sugar, and it was 137.  So he gave himself an insulin injection.  He layed down to see if he would feel better but a few hours later he still felt the same.  I wanted to take him to the ER but he said he just wanted to sleep.  So I hardly slept...I kept waking up and checking on him.

When he woke up this morning he said he felt great.  He is on his way to get his 2nd chemo treatment.  I'm sad that I was not able to go with him! :o(  But his mom is with him so I know he is in good hands!  He is going to see his Oncologist before the treatment.  I will update as soon as I know more!