It’s been almost 3 weeks since coming home from hospital and at this stage the healing process is going well but it’s still going to take a long time for Robin’s abdomen to settle down. Last week, we had the first post-operative oncology appointment but the outcome of this was not good news. Basically, Robin is too sick to resume treatment and, even worse, the oncologist felt that he may not ever be well enough to have further treatments. Due to the potential toxicity of the treatment there is a big risk that he would not survive complications from any treatment. This was devastating to hear as it means that we seem to have come to the end of this road with no further treatment options available. However, we are going to reassess all this in 2 weeks time to see if there is any improvement in blood test numbers.
While Robin’s liver numbers are not looking great, the main problem is that his albumin level is too low and his bilirubin too high. If these improve enough in the next couple of weeks, further immunotherapy infusions will be considered. We are now focusing on his diet to try and increase the albumin levels, but this is not simple or easy as he has no appetite and finds it very difficult to eat much if anything. In addition, besides diet there are also many other factors associated with low albumin levels over which there is no control.
This has been hard for all of us to process as the probability of being cured is becoming extremely small. Thankfully, our faith gives us the comfort to know that all things are possible, including a miracle, and even if that doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the road as we have a much greater hope that is beyond this life.
Please pray that the blood results will significantly improve by the time of the next appointment and that whatever the situation we would have peace.
Robin and Christine