Steve has made progress every day since his surgery last Thursday. At first they were talking about possible discharge tomorrow, but a high white blood count has his doctors suspecting that there may be an infection in his abdomen. So a bump in the road to recovery, but hopefully one that won't set him back too far.[...]

After a four hour surgery this morning, Steve is now resting. The surgery went as planned with removal of the primary tumor and the perforation. The surgeon is optimistic that the procedure will help to alleviate Steve’s discomfort. We will update soon with more details.  [...]

Steve has been scheduled for surgery this Thursday, May 12 at UNC Hospital. The surgery will initially be exploratory to assess the extent of Steve’s metastases and if it makes sense to do so, then proceed to remove the primary colon mass and fix the perforation. The ultimate goal is to make Steve more comfortable and improve his quality of life.[...]

Steve returned home last week![...]

Steve is still in the hospital as they continue to get the infection from the bowel perforation under control. Things change day by day but as of this writing we are expecting that he will be home sometime this week. The surgery has been postponed for a couple of weeks to give him time to get stronger and healthier beforehand.[...]

Unfortunately Steve’s return home was short lived. On Thursday we were back at the cancer hospital for a follow-up visit and a CT scan revealed a perforated bowel. This is a very serious condition and although he is stable at the moment, it will require surgery most likely within the next week. The silver lining is that given the proximity of the perforation to the primary tumor, the latter will also be removed during surgery. Although this means a longer road to recovery, we are hopeful that Steve’s quality of life will improve after getting rid of the tumor.[...]

Good news – Steve is finally home from the hospital!

Steve was in the hospital for 10 days while a team of doctors attempted to stop the spasms of his diaphragm which prevented him from eating or sleeping.[...]

March was not a great month for Steve. He did not tolerate the new chemotherapy well and after three cycles he went back on an earlier regimen. Unexpectedly, he simultaneously began to experience a whole new set of debilitating symptoms which left him in a very compromised state.[...]

Steve had a CT scan last week which showed regrowth of both the primary colon tumor and metastatic liver tumors. This means that the maintenance chemotherapy was not working and so he is back on a more toxic regimen. The additional drug is not the same one that he was on initially last year and it is early yet to gauge how he will tolerate it over the next several months. In addition to the usual unpleasant chemo side effects (fatigue, nausea), this one comes with neuropathy (bad news for a piano player) and sensitivity to cold (winter presents some challenges but at least he can proactively minimize exposure).
So disappointing news, but the hope is that this next round of chemo will kick the cancer back again without wreaking too much havoc on the rest of his body. Meanwhile, this has forced Steve to slow down—a little—but his spirit and determination are as strong as ever.
Thanks as always for your care and support.[...]

Just a brief entry because there’s little to report since the November update. Steve’s labs continue to look good for the most part, although he did get a transfusion of iron last month to help build up his iron stores, iron depletion being a casualty of both the cancer and the chemotherapy and a contributor to fatigue. He’s had some bouts of pain that have caused some concern (regrowth of the primary tumor since going on the “maintenance” chemo regimen?), but for now the treatment plan remains as is, which is maintenance therapy until his next scheduled CT scan in February. Meanwhile, he is excited about teaching his spring course on environmental justice, is energized by his participation in some litigation involving hog CAFOs, and is looking forward to his upcoming music gigs (one coming up soon at C Grace in Raleigh on Jan 5).
Best wishes to you all for a healthy, happy, peaceful 2016.[...]