Great News

This is a letter my dad wrote to his old co-workers and he asked to to post it so everyone can read about the great news he received last month.

I’d like to bring you up to date on how things are going. On October 9th I was told that I had liver cancer. Probably the worst day of my life. Later things were found to be much worse as I had pancreatic cancer. I was given 8 months to a year to live at best. Only 20% make it that far. Only 5% live longer but they are always on chemo. I wanted to be among the very small percent who don’t need the chemo to survive. I went to my network of friends and family to receive their prayers and support.
Life became more difficult. I have 3 blood clots in my right ankle. That is a very common problem with cancer patients. Jo gets to shoot me daily for the next 6 months. That’s better than taking cummadin (sp)to dissolve the clots which cancer patients can’t take. My body didn’t put out enough of the proper enzymes so I had a lot of digestive problems. I especially couldn’t deal with fats which didn’t much matter as I didn’t feel like eating. I’m not to lose weight for once. I’d feel like I had been up 24 hours even though I had been sleeping, I was so tired. But life was about to get better.
On 11/28 I met with a 3 1/2 year pancreatic cancer survivor from Logan. His name is David Watts. He has been using a herbal tea called Essiac Tea. Many places sell it and there are many forms. Like me he had been given about 6 months to live. Unlike me his cancer wasn’t in his liver as well. I have started drinking 4 oz/4x/day. My blood work has actually improved since I started it. Gemzar, my cancer drug, does mess w/ my bone marrow. For the 1st time since Oct 9th I had hope. Hope is a very powerful medicine.
I have been Essiac Tea faithfully since then. The tea comes from native Americans in Ontario Canada. The recipe was given to a nurse from a medicine man after she noticed a native American cancer survivor at a time when there weren’t cancer survivors. She researched the remedy for the next 50 years. There are many suppliers of quality Essiac Tea to be found. My supplier uses what is supposed to be the last and most effective recipe that she developed over those 50 years. If you are interested their web address is WWW.Discount-Essiac-Tea.com.
On December 28, 2010 I went to Huntsman Cancer for a round of CT & PET scans. I don’t much care for the experience but it lets us know what is going on. On the 29th I decreased (I hope) my stress level by marrying off my son. On the 31st Jo & I met with the Doctors at Huntsman to discuss my future. The results were very encouraging.
The doctors went over my liver results first. As I have around 20 lesions on my liver we didn’t look at all of them. We discussed a couple of the larger ones and they had reduced in size about 45%. That felt good. I was then told that my pancreas tumor had reduced in size by 30%. That also felt good. The nurse then explained apparently I didn’t understand. They don’t see pancreas tumors shrink 30%-ever! They were hoping that I’d be part of the 40% of patients that respond to the chemo by having the tumor stop growing. That means 60% don’t have a positive response at all. A very small percentage will see a small amount of shrinkage in the tumor but never 30%. A 30% shrinkage puts me in a different class, that I don’t remember what it is called. This all felt very good. All in the room were ecstatic.
Since my original diagnosis Jo & I have made prayer the most important part of our treatment. I wanted to discontinue the chemo. I don’t much care for having poison put into my veins. I have been blessed with very little discomfort from the process. My main complaints would be some mild nausea, digestive upsets and weariness. In spite of that we felt that God wanted us to continue on with the chemo. It’s like having a 1-2 punch, with both the chemo and the tea fighting the cancer. We believe that there are more cancers cells for the chemo to kill which makes it easier on my body to fight its fight.
We know that eventually the drug will stop working or at best be in a standoff with the cancer (about 5% make it to 5 years this way). What we are trying to do is enable my body to finish the job. So for now we will continue the chemo for 1 more cycle that will take me to the last week of February for the next scans. That means 6 more chemo’s. I had 1 last Friday and will have 1 today and every Friday with a rest week on the 22nd of January and 19th of February. I plan on using that 1st rest week warming up with mom & my wife down in Mexico. After the bitter cold of Vernal I think my body needs some sun and warmth.
My cancer protein marker were at 125,000 when I went to Huntsman. A marker is a protein that is shed by the cancer. The higher the number the more active the cancer is. By the time I started chemo it had gone up to 450,000 (cancer is probably growing). One doctor estimated that I had 20 tumors in my liver as well as my pancreas. After 3 weeks of chemo I had another blood sample pulled for the protein marker test. It was expected to be around 100,000 if the chemo was working. It came back at 18,000. So it appeared that the chemo was working well and prayers are being answered. On January 5th my nurse called and my markers were at 1100. I didn’t know that I could be so thankful.
The question has been asked about Essiac Tea and uses for other issues or illnesses. An Army friend told me that her sister is an herbologist (sp). She claims that Essiac tea is something that everyone should use every day. FYI a maintenance dose is 1 ounce in the morning and 1 ounce at night. The Native Americans didn’t deal much with cancer when they developed the tea. The tea builds our immune system so that our bodies can fight the fight. I have seen that the tea has helped people deal with heavy metal poisoning, diabetes, high blood pressure and a long list of other illnesses.
Speaking for myself I can tell you this. The doctors expected my red cell count to go down and it hasn’t. They expected my white cells to take a serious hit. Many people aren’t able to finish the 1st 7 infusions. By my 7th infusion my white cell count was down very slightly so that my last treatment was at 80% strength. I haven’t been sick at all. I haven’t lost hair (which we didn’t expect anyway), my energy levels have remained relatively high. Lately my afternoon naps are a lot harder to take and I feel very good. I still know that I am sick and at times I have some small pain, but I have reduced some meds. I feel that so far I am a living miracle. I am where I am today because of the prayers and faith of family and friends. I was led by God to be treated at the Huntsman Cancer Hospital where I received the support that I have needed from understanding doctors and staff. God opened my heart to be able to turn to alternative treatments as well. He answered our prayers by a dear lady in our shop, by the name of Pat, who had her work cut out for her to change my way of thinking.
Life is very good. Believe it or not there are moments when I miss being at work. As I looked through my old e-mails and see that I’ll be missing the seminar I almost wish I was back at work. I am finally feeling good enough to plan on working on my books so that I don’t get too far behind. My support from my shop has been fantastic. It is hard to believe how blessed I am.
I can never thank everyone enough for your support and prayers. I have felt this on some very difficult days. If ever I can help anyone please let me know.

More of the story

In an earlier blog Michelle mentioned that I’m part of a study that is looking at a combination of chemo drugs to fight this very aggressive cancer. I’m part of the control arm that is using the standard drug, which is called Gemzar. Only about 40% of the patients that use this drug have significant positive results, that being an increase in the length or the quality of life. As far as I know, it does not send the disease into remission. Usually after 3-6 months the cells become chemo-resistant and start to grow again. From that point on medical science doesn’t seem to know what to do, although there always seems to be more drugs of some kind that they want to put into your body.

I have a port implanted in my chest that feeds into the right juggler vein in my neck. The port saves a lot of poking around as they try to find a vein which seems to be receding due to chemo & disease. The port is a device that is covered with skin. The nurse uses a special needle to access the port which then enables her to get blood samples or to infuse me with the poison/chemo.

Overall the chemo hasn’t been too bad. Tiredness seems to be the #1 problem. Each week there seems to be a new issue of some kind. Fortunately our Heavenly Father seems to lead us to ways to deal with the issues. It has been a struggle to learn how to deal with all of the changes. I need to take a nap every afternoon (not bad). Lack of energy, digestive issues, emotions near the surface and chemo brain (brain farts) seem to be on going. I need to use my energy to fight the disease. Right now I need to rest 3 hours in the afternoon or my liver lets me know that I didn’t. I also know when I eat too much fat. My liver and pancreas are working but they’re not putting out enough enzymes to eat like I used to. I’m also blessed in that I have not gone diabetic. I have to eat the way we’re all supposed to eat & at the same time I’m not to lose any weight & I’m not so far. So all things considered I’m doing great.

The story begins:

The lives of those in the Gordon Ehler family has been on quite a roller coaster ride since October 9^th, 2009 when my family doctor told Jo & I that I probably had liver cancer. I kind of knew that something wasn’t right when my doctor had tears in his eyes. Because my tests, health and blood work all showed normal we didn’t suspect cancer. I did ok until Jo started to cry. At that point I suspected that my life would never be the same. I was right!

It all started with a severe pain in my lower left back and pain under my left ribs on Father’s Day. The pain would vary and most of the time over the counter medicines helped. By the time I decided to visit the doctors it was September. Jo knew that something was wrong as did I, but we figured it was probably the return of ulcers. I was amazed at how many disorders I found as I did research that mimicked my symptoms. My doctor ordered the usual colonoscopy, and an ultrasound of the abdomen because of the possibility of gallbladder problems. If he had not done that we still might not know what was really wrong. When he saw lesions on my liver some benign tumors were suspected. The follow up CT scan lead to a liver biopsy. The rest is history.

After meeting with a couple of cancer docs and some scans I was told that I had pancreatic cancer. The cancer had spread from my pancreas to my liver. A radiologist said that I probably had around 20 tumors in my liver. I’m in stage 4 since the cancer has spread to other organs. Both of the docs told me that the disease was terminal. Estimates of how long I had to live range out to a year. I have learned that only 20% last that long and 2%-5% make it to 5 years.

Happenings

Hey this is Michelle. There really isn't much new stuff to say, which is why I haven't blogged much about things. My dad had a port installed into his shoulder/chest area so that they can put the chemo directly into it everytime rather then having to poke him everytime. The surgery went well and will be getting his 3rd round of chemo this friday. He is scheduled to get his chemo every friday til the week of Christmas then he will have a rest week and then another PET scan on the 3oth of Dec. and the reading will be done on the 31st. At least thats how it is scheduled for now. So when we get those results we will know if the chemo is working or not. At least that's what I understand is going on. It seems as if the pain hasn't been as bad for him, so that might be a good sign. The chemo is affecting him a little bit, but not as badly as most people think when they hear about chemo. My dad has taken short term disability and is down to working 4 hrs a day and making sure he gets plenty of rest, excercise, and good nurishment.....oh ya and he has a little less stress with the lack of work he is having to do, which is what we all want! Anyway, I'll do my best with keeping up with everything and hopefully where I slack, my dad will make up for.

New Blog

Hey this is Michelle. I just wanted to let everyone know that this is going to be the new site I will use to blog about my dad. I have also added him as an author so that he has a place to blog about the things that are going on. So hopefully you'll be hearing from us both. Between the both of us hopefully we will keep you all informed.