Lorne's Funds for Cancer Treatment
Donation protected
Hello friends! I thought it was high time to let you know the latest on the front lines of Lorne's cancer battle. As most of you know who see Lorne somewhat regularly, he is doing well, working (aka traveling), and very happy to be "back in the game"!
Thanks to YOU and your generous donations that made it possible, our trip to the Oasis of Hope for alternative cancer treatments went very well. I want to thank you all again for making this journey possible. There has been no greater feeling than knowing we have the love and support of so many friends and awesome people behind us and pulling for Lorne on this very difficult journey. While not necessary, any continued financial support we receive is extremely appreciated as we have used all the money previously raised between the partial treatment, the surgery and the ongoing costs of the home treatment protocol. We are in the process of re-financing our house to lower our interest rate so that should help quite a bit too!
We did not anticipate Lorne needing emergency surgery and the recovery from it was really, really rough. I will admit there were times we were both quite scared as he didn't seem to be progressing as he should in the first few weeks after the surgery. But these last 2-3 weeks he’s been really starting to bounce back! His doctors here are very encouraged by his progress. It’s been an amazing and inspiring thing to watch his resolve in action, but he has never done anything less than totally amaze me.
That said, as most of you know, the treatments that we went to Mexico for were cut short by the immediate need for surgery to remove the colon tumor, which was apparently ulcerating. This is what was causing his ever increasing pain which elevated beyond control within a week of arriving at Oasis. He was extremely lucky to have been receiving treatments in a place where they could perform immediate surgery and to be a good candidate for the surgery! We didn’t even know they could do ANY surgery there until it became an issue and then we learned we were staying on the second floor because the entire first floor is a full blown hospital!
Due to this unanticipated surgery, he was only able to complete 9 of the 21 days of the treatment plan. The rest of his time there was recuperating from the surgery during which he could not do any treatment. They wanted to him to heal from the surgery for 6 – 8 weeks before finishing up his treatments as they can be physically demanding. We also couldn't begin the home treatment protocols during this healing time. But he is now more than ready and we will be looking at going back to complete his treatments in the next month or so. I will send out an update when we have set the date. And of course, I will update the blog while we are there for those who follow it.
Lorne follows a rigorous home treatment protocol that some of you may have noticed requires him to take a boat load of pills 6 times a day between pills he must take on an empty stomach and those he must take with food. He complains about it, but it's is SOOOO much better than the last year of chemo, all I have to do is remind him of that and he is happily gulping down those pills!
Lorne will be having a scan in a couple of weeks. He dreads these as they have typically been just more bad news. And while he doesn't want to be told the results of this upcoming scan, I'm really not too worried. He is at least a month behind where he should be because of the healing time after the surgery. Add to that the fact that he couldn't complete the treatments and I will not be shocked if there is little to no improvement visible on his scans yet. It won't be until AFTER he completes the treatments and has been on the home treatment protocol a bit longer that I will anticipate seeing improvement. That said, if there IS any improvement... we will surely be letting you know!
Well, that's pretty much what's been going on! We are hanging in there and couldn't be doing it without you! Thank you, thank you so much for your ongoing love and support of Lorne in this crisis.
Sean & Lorne
PS - As a side note, our experience with Oasis, through one of our physicians and some friends, has reached many people who have been contacting us for information about Oasis. It makes us so very happy to be able to help people who, like me, have been so overwhelmed by all the information out there. It's a really hard thing to navigate alone and sharing Oasis with others on this journey is one way to spread the hope!!
Thanks to YOU and your generous donations that made it possible, our trip to the Oasis of Hope for alternative cancer treatments went very well. I want to thank you all again for making this journey possible. There has been no greater feeling than knowing we have the love and support of so many friends and awesome people behind us and pulling for Lorne on this very difficult journey. While not necessary, any continued financial support we receive is extremely appreciated as we have used all the money previously raised between the partial treatment, the surgery and the ongoing costs of the home treatment protocol. We are in the process of re-financing our house to lower our interest rate so that should help quite a bit too!
We did not anticipate Lorne needing emergency surgery and the recovery from it was really, really rough. I will admit there were times we were both quite scared as he didn't seem to be progressing as he should in the first few weeks after the surgery. But these last 2-3 weeks he’s been really starting to bounce back! His doctors here are very encouraged by his progress. It’s been an amazing and inspiring thing to watch his resolve in action, but he has never done anything less than totally amaze me.
That said, as most of you know, the treatments that we went to Mexico for were cut short by the immediate need for surgery to remove the colon tumor, which was apparently ulcerating. This is what was causing his ever increasing pain which elevated beyond control within a week of arriving at Oasis. He was extremely lucky to have been receiving treatments in a place where they could perform immediate surgery and to be a good candidate for the surgery! We didn’t even know they could do ANY surgery there until it became an issue and then we learned we were staying on the second floor because the entire first floor is a full blown hospital!
Due to this unanticipated surgery, he was only able to complete 9 of the 21 days of the treatment plan. The rest of his time there was recuperating from the surgery during which he could not do any treatment. They wanted to him to heal from the surgery for 6 – 8 weeks before finishing up his treatments as they can be physically demanding. We also couldn't begin the home treatment protocols during this healing time. But he is now more than ready and we will be looking at going back to complete his treatments in the next month or so. I will send out an update when we have set the date. And of course, I will update the blog while we are there for those who follow it.
Lorne follows a rigorous home treatment protocol that some of you may have noticed requires him to take a boat load of pills 6 times a day between pills he must take on an empty stomach and those he must take with food. He complains about it, but it's is SOOOO much better than the last year of chemo, all I have to do is remind him of that and he is happily gulping down those pills!
Lorne will be having a scan in a couple of weeks. He dreads these as they have typically been just more bad news. And while he doesn't want to be told the results of this upcoming scan, I'm really not too worried. He is at least a month behind where he should be because of the healing time after the surgery. Add to that the fact that he couldn't complete the treatments and I will not be shocked if there is little to no improvement visible on his scans yet. It won't be until AFTER he completes the treatments and has been on the home treatment protocol a bit longer that I will anticipate seeing improvement. That said, if there IS any improvement... we will surely be letting you know!
Well, that's pretty much what's been going on! We are hanging in there and couldn't be doing it without you! Thank you, thank you so much for your ongoing love and support of Lorne in this crisis.
Sean & Lorne
PS - As a side note, our experience with Oasis, through one of our physicians and some friends, has reached many people who have been contacting us for information about Oasis. It makes us so very happy to be able to help people who, like me, have been so overwhelmed by all the information out there. It's a really hard thing to navigate alone and sharing Oasis with others on this journey is one way to spread the hope!!
Organizer
Sean Grimes
Organizer
Orangevale, CA
