Some good news this week: CT scans of upper chest showed no masses or enlarged lymph nodes. The cancer has not spread past the neck.
Still Stage IV, but a much more survivable Stage IV.
Chris has a pre-surgical consult set up with one of the best endocrine surgeons in the world on April 13th, at the latest. He's also at the top of the cancellation list. His endo was mentored by the surgeon in question, so we have a direct line to getting this done.
So as soon as possible Chris is having a full neck dissection (do NOT Google that unless you can handle graphic pictures of surgeries). Then he'll have a little time to recover before a dose of I-131 (systemic radiation using radioactive iodine).
So we're talking at least a few months of Chris being completely down between the surgery and the radiation.
Now the bad news...
Chris is already down and mostly bed-bound. His lymphedema and lymphadenitis is pretty severe. His lymph fluid is backing up into his upper chest and back and is quite painful. It keeps him from sleeping as well as worsening his knee problems.
You can't really tell if you follow him on Facebook because he's already so used to being in pain. However, that means that if it involves walking, I'm the one doing it. Also because when he finally gets to sleep he needs to stay asleep, I'm handling most of the communications with the medical team.
So I'm running the household, taking care of all 5 living creatures (Chris, Christopher, doggies, and myself), and handling the medical stuff essentially single-handedly.
I'm happy to do it, since I really want my husband to live, but it's damn hard sometimes.
Chris can't work because he's totally unreliable at the moment, between pain, sleep deprivation, and the medical stuff coming up.
I can't work because if I work Christopher needs to go into daycare, and there's a high cost there. There's also the very large issue of if I'm working and Christopher goes to daycare, we risk bringing home stray viruses to Chris while he's immunocompromised. A random virus could literally KILL him right now.
So at a time where our medical costs are climbing ever higher, neither of us can work. Isn't that a kick in the head?
So yeah, we'll be hurting for a while, and we'll still need help until Chris is well enough to work again or handle child care.
But hey, we're getting somewhere and his chances of survival are very good.
I've still got the GoFundMe up and running, and PayPal to chris@chrisbyrne.com always works. Any help would be highly appreciated.
Mel
