RESULTS of PET

Great news! The cancer has NOT spread anywhere else in the body!!!!! For this we are so thankful and give praise to our Savior! Thank you prayer warriors. What a relief it is to know that after 2 1/2 years it is still contained in the head and neck. I pray every day, expectantly, that ultimately the cancer will be gone from his body and today I am uplifted with even more HOPE! Yippee!!!

So, here is where things are. Some of you may know that last week I have started the ball rolling to go to MD Anderson. I have felt led to do that for some time although it is a lot harder said than done. There is a business to run, a home to take care of and many other details that would have to be dealt with to have treatment there. Last week while waiting for the results of a PET scan and physically watching a spot on his neck increase in intensity I just felt like something else has to be done. We can't just sit her and watch these things happen while we wait on this doctor or that doctor to call and then decide what to do. Things need to be done YESTERDAY! So that very day, I made some calls and then gave it all to GOD. I trust that what needs to be done will fall perfectly in to place whether it is here, Birmingham or MD Anderson.

Dr. Holmes called Dad to check on his teeth/pain. He had the results and they talked about them briefly agreeing that the radical surgery idea is not out of the question, but should probably be put on hold while we use more chemo and/or radiation to get the area back under control. Dr. Bechach talked on the phone with Dr. Holmes this morning while we were there and they conversed with Dr. Spencer through email!! (Now we are talking...all 3 doctors discussing this together to make decisions on what to do next!!!) We have not gotten final word from Dr. Spencer (the UAB radiologist) as to whether or not she wants to go back in with more radiation or if that is even an option. All doctors are in agreement that the chemo worked the last time in that it shrunk the tumors and got the spread under control. We are well aware that chemo will not cure this cancer, but getting it smaller and under control would increase our success chances with more radiation and/or the radical surgery later on. That is the treatment plan that I feel they are all leaning to.

Mom and I just left Dad there to get his regular Erbitux infusion today. If chemo is the decision plan we go with, they would like to start it next Monday along with putting him back on Zometo for that pesty little spot on the vertebra that doesn't go away. One of the doctors isn't worried or concerned about that spot based on its behavior, while another wants to order an MRI to look at it from another point of view. We will go along with the MRI to be on the safe side.

As for the teeth and the pain, we still have no solution for that right now. Surgery to remove the teeth simply is not an option at this point. We've got to attack the cancer first and foremost and both chemo and radiation therapy would make surgery to remove teeth impossible. So for now he will continue to try different pain management regimens to see what works.

Thank you praying friends! Lets offer our Praise to God for answered prayers. Continue to pray for his complete healing..praying BIG! Pray for the doctors to talk and come together with a clear plan that works! I'm still so excited about one day "knocking their socks off" with the good news that the cancer is gone!

While listening to one of the doctors explain to us about how chemo won't cure this cancer, radiation can kill it, surgery is a risky chance...might work, might not, I spoke up and said, "and there is always a miracle". He stopped talking, nodded his head and said, "this is true". Let us never forget the Great Physician! He is always my number one option!!

Love,
Michelle