Curtis and Shannon Howard: Change of plan

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Curtis started vomiting and they cancelled his discharge. His ostomy bag is not working anymore. They put him back on full liquids and see how he does tomorrow. Bummer.

Curtis Bryce Howard

Curtis was diagnosed at the age of 31 with stage 4 colorectal cancer. He had an ileostomy December 2010, a port-a-cath placement January 2011. Started 7 weeks 5FU chemo and 7 weeks radiation February 2011. He was scheduled for a colon resection and a permanent colostomy in April 2011, but the surgery was cancelled. Some inguinal lymph nodes were swollen and we showed these to the surgeon. The lymph nodes were biopsied and they came back positive for cancer. A pet scan was done a few days later and the cancer had spread to his neck, lungs, 2 possible lesions on his liver and all over in his abdominal cavity. Curtis immediately started chemotherapy with Folfox6 and Avastin with a trial drug called Afinitor (RAD-001). Another pet scan was done in June and Curits is responding very well to treatment. The tumor in his neck is not on the scan, the multiple small tumors in his lungs are not showing anymore except for 2 very small ones. The metabolic activity of all the nodes and tumors is much lower than before. He is still doing treatment every 2 weeks and will have a pain pump on July 12th that will hopefully make his pain more stable and him more comfortable.

Curtis and Shannon Howard

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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Change of plan

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