Chidamoyo Hospital in Zimbabwe

 I stopped chemo in mid-February and the oncologist tried a period of Immunotherapy by itself to see if it would work.  In March I started to produce a lot of abdominal fluid (ascities) and had to go to the hospital every 2 weeks and then every week to be tapped to remove the fluid.  They got off up to 8.8 liters a time which gave me a few days relief before it would come back.  It made it hard to breathe without laying on my sides and I couldn't really eat without pain. So, I was in bed a lot of the time. They decided I needed to start Chemo again with the Immunotherapy.  My Oncologist said it was not time to give up yet!  He said the chemo helped before to shrink the tumor a bit so they felt if I could shrink it again I wouldn't have to go for tapping.  I was all for that. He did remind me there is no cure only remission and that I have months not years to live but he felt there were other drugs to try if these don't work.  I am usually not in pain so I am so thankful for

 Finally, I m catching up with all of you to tell you that things are going a bit better.  I have finished 4 chemo and immunotherapy sessions.  The last two chemo really wiped me out and it was even hard to get out of bed.  No nausea or vomiting.  Just wiped out and weak and couldn’t eat.  I ended up in the hospital 2 more times and just fatigued and wiped out, couldn’t eat or drink and had a UTI. This past Thursday I did my first immunotherapy by itself which is IV for and hour once a month. I did well and no side effects.  My scan 2 weeks ago showed shrinkage of the cancer mass and the oncologist was very happy as he was only hoping it would not have grown. Now I will continue IV immunotherapy once a month and scans every 3 months.  As long as the tumor continues to shrink that is the plan. I have been going everyday at 0900 for an IV antibiotic since I was in the hospital for 30 days in a row to get a half an hour infusion.  I go 10 minutes away and my brother takes me everyday and

  Well, it has been almost three months now since I have added to the blog and I finally feel well enough to catch everyone up on what has been happening in the whirlwind of time. Most of the year since getting back from furlough in mid-February I have not been feeling well and I went through having an ulcer, having H. Pyloric, resistant H. Pyloric and then finally the end of October (27th) showed a fast-growing liver mass. Through it all I worked 6 hours in the morning and then went home and slept 3 hours most afternoon.   I also lost my appetite and could not eat much, so had not energy.   I was not having direct patient care due to COVID so preparing the staff for working without me! They opened the boarders to fly on October 1 so when all 3 of my doctors said to go to the USA as soon as possible, I had a liver biopsy on 3 rd of November and got on the plane the next day to the US. We had to have a negative COVID test to fly out within 72 hours. I flew from Harare to Johann