February 2010

There were 2 posts published in February 2010 (this is page 1 of 1).

met with the surgeon today

We had a meeting with the surgeon today, and the news is both good and .. average, I suppose, not bad.

The main tumor has shrunk from 11 cm when we first found it to only 5 cm now. This is VERY good! It is located on his kidney, and while it’s wrapped around the kidney blood vessels, it’s no longer near the aorta – which is very good. Removing this is still a delicate procedure due to the involvement of the kidney vessels, but is worlds easier than it would have been if the aorta was still an issue. IF this was the only remaining tumor, we’d be able to schedule the surgery immediately and move forward with treatment as planned.

However, there are also 3 remaining tumors in the liver which were there when he was diagnosed as well. They are considerably smaller now, but still there. This means the chemo is working, but has not killed them off yet. Because of this, the surgeon and Ezra’s oncologists need to sit and chat over the next course of action. The liver is on the other side of his body, so all the tumors could not be removed with one surgery. Also, they are in both sides of the liver – one is accessed near the middle of the body, the other the left side. In other words, removing all 4 tumors requires careful attention – and surgery may not even be the best option for all 4. Our surgeon is also talking to some other oncologists who have a method of “freezing” the liver tumors so they no longer are active. A 6th round of chemo BEFORE the surgery is also not off the table – the surgeon wants to go over the pros and c ons of that with Ezra’s oncologists as well to see if that would have a large affect on the liver tumors.

To sum it all up – everything is still looking good, and responding well. The liver tumors are a bump in the road which require careful consideration and some attention in how best to deal with. Dr Kayton (the surgeon)’s words were “this isn’t a text book case… we need to tailor something specifically for Ezra” – which is a good thing. No one is worried, and the treatment is all affecting him positively. Dr Kayton will be getting back to us within a week or so with answers/options on what we do next.

Whew!

scans scans and more scans

Alright, alright – everyone is asking for more updates. Well, so far nothing much to say is why I haven’t updated anything! At least no news is good news. 😉 Ezra has been recovering the past couple weeks from the 5th round of chemo – which he did admirably. His labs never dipped at all, which the doctors couldn’t explain – but it’s good.

Last weekend we got bone scans done, and his bones are completely, 100% free of cancer. Wednesday, yesterday, and today we’ve been at St Joe’s getting a second MIBG scan to see the size of his main tumor. We have an appointment with Dr Kayton (the surgeon who will be removing the tumor) this coming Wednesday to go over the scans with him and, assuming all looks as good as everyone thinks it will, schedule the surgery for shortly after our meeting. We could have the tumor removed before March reaches us!

We’re working on trimming off extraneous commitments in an effort to regain some sanity in our schedules. I’ve backed out of doing the web stuff for Grace Family Church, and we’re both taking solid looks at what we give the most time to, what we enjoy most, and how we can make sure the two are the same. It’s been good, and necessary.

Oh – we found out both the twins are going to be boys. Or rather, are already. 😀 Which means… come mid-June, we’ll have 3 boys under two running around the place. Walk in the park…. 😉

I’ll have more info for you all come Wednesday!