upcoming year

Not a whole lot going on with me right now.  I am simply waiting to get tested again.  The test will be to see if my colon has healed completly.  My surgeon is hopeful that he will be able to reverse the illeostomy.  January is when I will next be tested.  If all is well I will be headed back to Houston for surgery.

2008 is a new year with many good things to come.

Cheers,

darin

Houston, we have a problem

I am back at my hotel in HOU and am very disappointed. The test today revealed that my colon has still yet to properly heal so I will not have the surgery to reverse my illeostomy. During surgery today the interventional radiology doctor replaced the drain tube with a different style in hopes that this will allow the colon to heal. Tomorrow I have a meeting with my surgical oncologist to discuss our options. I am guessing that he will suggest keeping this drain in for another 6-8 weeks and then retest.

I expect to return to KC late tomorrow evening and will be back in the office on Thursday.

This is very disappointing to me but I will continue to keep my head up and do my best to not let this, or anything else, get me down.

Unity is Strength, Knowledge is Power, Attitude is Everything,
LiveSTRONG

-jupe

curve ball

A co-worker just emailed me stating she has been diagnosed with breast cancer....I will hopefully be an inspiration for her during the fight she faces. Life is not fair and cancer SUCKS! Unity is Strength, Knowledge is Power, Attitude is Everything......LiveStrong -jupe

back to Houston -

It appears that I will heading back to Houston for the reversal of my illeostomy. I will have testing on Nov. 13th & surgery on Nov. 15th.  They expect to keep me in the hosptial 3-5 days. I will post a short message while I am there.

LIVESTRONG
-darin

I'm back with an update

Summary update:

After returning from Houston (MD Anderson) I underwent an additional 7 chemo treatments with the last on Aug. 9th, 2007.  I recently visited Houston and planned to have surgery to reverse the ostomy and a potential liver resection. My colon did not heal yet so I did not have major surgery. I did have a drain tube 'installed' Tuesday Sept. 18th to remove fluid from around my colon so it can heal. The liver surgery is also on hold as we now plan to simply go into a monitoring mode. I will return to Houston in mid-late October to see of my colon has healed properly and  hopefully have the ostomy reversed. 

I was "re-staged" while in Houston and I am cancer free.  My blood counts were great and CT imaging was clean.

I apologize for not keeping this updated and hope to do a better job in the future.

Thank you to everyone for your concerns and continued support.

Link to NBC New Story

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/content/kchealth/story.aspx?content_id=df586885-098e-465a-9771-3246a19431d9

NBC News Special Series

NBC News is doing a special series for Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Darin was recently interviewed by Cynthia Newsome and his story will air on Wednesday, April 4 at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. (with the longer version appearing on the 10 p.m. news). The segment will also be posted online at www.NBCActionews.com on Thursday, April 5. I thought you all would like to tune in.

Darin is recovering nicely and we received great news from his surgeon regarding the pathology report.  He expects to be discharged from the hospital soon and will stay in Houston a bit longer for a follow-up appointment. We hope he will be on a flight back to Kansas City by the end of the week. What a greeting he will get from Carter!

I can't say thank you enough for your prayers & support during this challenging time. So many of you have reached out to our family and it means more than you know. Thank you!

Love, Nicole