Gary RV_Wizard
Site Team
Nancy & I are in Tampa this week, at the Moffitt Cancer Center. On Wednesday the orthopedic surgeons will work their magic and repair her torn rotator cuff, scrape as much cancer as possible from the scapula (shoulder bone), and then reinforce it with an epoxy cement. They can't scrape the bone too thin or it will break, but the docs think they can make some good gains and substantially relieve her constant pain. And repair of the rotator muscle should restore some shoulder movement, though it will take several months of therapy to get it back in operation.
She has also begun one new chemotherapy regimen and will start a second one after she recovers from the surgery. We are hoping these will control the existing cancer and prevent further spreading. These two chemos are in pill form, so hopefully we will be able to travel next summer instead of being stuck within driving range of the Moffitt for infusion treatments. She will probably need these pills for the rest of her life, though, and they are incredibly expensive. Thousands of $ each per month, which pretty well overwhelms the prescription drug coverage of our insurance as well as our savings. Fortunately one drug manufacturer took pity on us and is giving her the drug for free (so far).
She has also had radiation treatments on the shoulder bone, but they had to be limited because she has already had a lot of radiation in the same general area. It helped quite a bit, though.
We've shared far too much together to consider replacing her, so we are having her remodeled with an upgraded shoulder bone and a titanium neck bone and she should be good for quite a few years yet. ;D We remain optimistic even though this latest cancer may not ever be totally eradicated from her body.
She has also begun one new chemotherapy regimen and will start a second one after she recovers from the surgery. We are hoping these will control the existing cancer and prevent further spreading. These two chemos are in pill form, so hopefully we will be able to travel next summer instead of being stuck within driving range of the Moffitt for infusion treatments. She will probably need these pills for the rest of her life, though, and they are incredibly expensive. Thousands of $ each per month, which pretty well overwhelms the prescription drug coverage of our insurance as well as our savings. Fortunately one drug manufacturer took pity on us and is giving her the drug for free (so far).
She has also had radiation treatments on the shoulder bone, but they had to be limited because she has already had a lot of radiation in the same general area. It helped quite a bit, though.
We've shared far too much together to consider replacing her, so we are having her remodeled with an upgraded shoulder bone and a titanium neck bone and she should be good for quite a few years yet. ;D We remain optimistic even though this latest cancer may not ever be totally eradicated from her body.
