Ryan in hospital twice

From Ryan's Mom:

11/9/08: Ryan got out of the hospital this afternoon.

11/7/08: SOME GOOD NEWS: RYAN IS STILL IN THE HOSPITAL, IMPROVING SLOWLY. HIS DOCTORS HAVE REVIEWED THE SCAN RESULTS, AND HAVE FOUND THAT THE CANCER HAS BEEN SHRUNK A BIT. RYAN WILL BE GIVEN ABOUT TWO WEEKS OFF, THEN THEY WILL TRY ONE MORE TIME ON THE CHEMO.

11/6/08: Ryan's cancer is small cell lung cancer-------can also be known as 'oatmeal' cancer---------treatable, but not curable.

11/5/08: Ryan still in hospital. Well, the news was not at all what we wanted to hear. This last bit of chemo has not done what they were hoping for. The infection at his port site has to get cleared. They removed the port this afternoon. They will possibly put a new one in when his infection is cleared up.

His oncologist is contacting others across the country to see if there are any experimental (clinical?) drugs that can be tried on Ryan. Will relay more as we find out.

Just before we found out about Ryan, we had a call from Annie (Ryan's sister). They had a fire last night in the new house. What a mess. Everyone, dogs included made it out ok with no injuries. Most lucky on that account. We took our 27 1/2 foot travel trailer up there this am so that they will have somewhere to sleep. Could get a motel, but didn't want to leave all their stuff unattended.

11/3/08 10:38 p.m: The latest is that they are now thinking of taking the port completely out, and his white blood count was at .3 should be 3,000. Will have the results of his scan sometime tomorrow. We really do need some good news for a change.

11/3/08: Ryan is back in the hospital again. Site infection where the port is------may have to have a new one put in.

Also, white blood count down again. He has now lost about 97 lbs. A few days in the hospital should help get him back on his feet.

They are going to do the scan earlier than scheduled, so that they can see if the cancer has been stopped--------that's the news I really don't want to hear at this point.

10/30/08: Ryan was in the hospital overnight---blood levels had dropped once more. They built him back up, sent him home, and now we wait and see. Yesterday and today have been a bit owly with him. Nauseated, vomiting, etc. That should go away here in a couple of days. Seems to go with the territory.