Test time coming up for Dad

[MandyB]

Hi everyone, sorry not been around for a while, just been catching up on all the posts. Ned, I'm sending prayers and love for you and I hope the steroids can do their magic for you xxx

Been a bit of a hectic few months, I lost my beloved German Shepherd Oscar in 29th December, so all in all, with Dad's DX and losing my Oscar 2010 was a pretty crappy year to say the least.

Anyway onwards and upwards, as they say. Dad is doing good, still no side effects from the Stereotactic radiotherapy in August. His next CT is on Tuesday 5th April, but we won't get the results until the 20th as I'm having a few days away with the girls in between appointments.

If you remember way back in 2009, Dad was admitted into hospital with congestive heart failure, where an eagle-eyed radiologist found a 'nodule' in Dads right upper lobe. ( thank God for that man!) It was a wait and see game, and by April last year, after a PET scan we got the news that it was a cancerous tumour.

Anyhow, everything got put on hold with heart treatment while Dad has his Radiotherapy, so his cardiologist only arranged for him to have an angiogram yesterday. Well folks, Dad's blocked artery has re-routed itself and found another way around his heart!!!! No surgery needed, just he has to stay on his heart tablets, maybe not even another cardiology appointment needed!! I couldn't believe it, so of course got home and 'googled' and it CAN happen, the heart is capable of doing this. Its called Collateral Circulation, apparantly. So maybe some other 'force' was working that day Dad had his heart failure, The tumour would never have been found if Dad's heart had not let him down that day. And now, over 18 months later, his heart has repaired itself. Do you believe in miracles?. Its certainly made me think.

I send prayers and love to all of you fighting the battle at this present time, but never ever give up, Miracles do happen.

I ask for prayers that Dad's CT scan is good news too.

God Bless

Mandy B xx

[eric byrne]

Hi Mandy,

Please pass on to your dad my very best wishes for his scan next week,I found your Dads collateral circulation story really interesting,never heard of such a thing before,miracle?someone looking after him from afar?why not.

Shortly after my LC dx,I was sent for a Pet Scan,to discover the extent of the spread,this scan showed up a hot spot in my bowel,following a later colonoscopy,the doctor told me I had bowel cancer a second primary to boot.Long story short,they operated on me later to remove from my bowel a polyp the size of a golf ball,which I was told by the time it grew to that size it always proved to be cancerous,well the results of the came back,benign,the surgeon also added,another year and that polyp would have killed me.So my LC dx,actually saved my life?miracle,well I do go to church each week,just to say thanks.

[Joppette]

HI Mandy,

Thanks for the update and good news. So sorry about your puppy.

I definitely believe in miracles, and so enjoy having them affirmed in stories like your Dad's, and Erics. Thanks for sharing.

MI Judy

[dianew]

Mandy: Such good news about your Dad, thanks for sharing - I definitely believe in miracles. Deepest sympathy on the loss of Oscar.

Diane

[MandyB]

Hi everyone.

Dad's CT result was fantastic. although there is quite alot of scar tissue in the lung, the tumour has gone!! No sign of it, just a black void where it used to be. I asked the Oncologist what happens to tumours that have been zapped with radiotherapy, and he told me sometimes the tumour shrinks and a part of it remains but is classed as dead. Sometimes the body absorbs the tumour completely, and it looks like this has happened to Dad. We are still at 3 monthly CT's, but as you can imagine, we are thrilled with the result so far.

My prayers and love to you all.

Mandy B