Visit to Bham

Sorry to keep you all waiting so long. In the last post I had mentioned that Dr. Holmes wanted to talk to Dr. Spencer and get up to date and then see what he could possibly do to help with the tooth situation and the cancer that is left. He called on Monday and said that he had not talked with Dr. Spencer yet but wanted to work dad in Thursday (today). So that was the plan. During the week we had some issues with eating and the feeding tube, but I am pretty sure it has been taken care of with a visit yesterday to Dr. Short. (It seems that the pain patch he was given two weeks ago has caused his stomach to have some problems, but hopefully that is all working good now.)

Our appointment with Dr. Holmes was late today. Basically, we know that cancer is still there on the neck. We aren't sure if the area was directly hit by the radiation or not, we assume it was. So the first thing Dr. Holmes did was take a picture of it and send it by email to Dr. Spencer. She wanted to see it before commenting on the next step... if and when more radiation could be done. Dr. Holmes explained lots of medical jumbo as to what is happening in the neck area and how going in and cutting out the "spots" will not work very well at this point because the cancers just keep popping up right outside the areas that have been treated. He then examined his two teeth in the back on the left side that have been causing so much pain and agreed that they are bad and in trouble. The teeth do need to come out, but healing is an issue at this point and if more radiation can be given, then taking them out would not be wise right now.

He did give us some new and very interesting options! First, he wants to talk to Dr. Spencer and see if any more radiation can be given at all in that area. If it can, he offered an option of removing some good "healthy" skin from somewhere else and placing it over the area to be radiated, acting as a conductor for the radiation to be more effective. (Trust me, it was a lot more elaborate when he explained it, but for simple conversation..I am going with this!)

When Dad asked about cutting the lastest "spot" out he offered the following. He said he would not sit there and tell us there were no more options because there are! (answered prayer!) He said that he could actually go in and cut out the ulcerated area along with the other two areas of concern and then take a healthy flap of skin from his chest and FLIP it over to grow and cover the wound! Can you believe it? Again, he went in to a lot of detail, but the bottom line is since his cancers keep coming back in the same general area and have not traveled past the clavicle bone, this may be a workable option for him! Dig it out and replace it with new vessels an capillaries from totally healthy skin. I'm amazed. There is a huge chance that it would work and a huge chance that two weeks afterwards he could find another spot..that's the downside. I say lets give it a try! If more radiation is not an option..why not? I'm telling you this man knows his head and neck cancer stuff. Whoa!

So here is where we are....Dr. Holmes is going to email the pictures to Dr. Spencer (radiologist/UAB) and they will converse through email about what to do. Meanwhile, Dad sees Dr. Bechach (chemo doctor) here on Monday for a check up and we need to request a PET scan because Dr. Holmes would of course need to know that the rest of the body is clear before performing either one of the surgeries. We were due one soon anyway, we just need to step it up. As for the teeth, he said "if we do the surgery, I may want to go ahead and get those teeth out. If we don't do the surgery, I may want to get those teeth out." Apparently, the teeth need to come out! Ha! It may take all through next week before we know anything concrete. I promise I will let you know as soon as we do!

I will end tonight with this thought:

I follow another blog written by the husband of a 37 year old mother of 2, who had a stroke at the beginning of January. His faith is unbelievable and she is slowly but surely coming out of a coma and beginning to improve. He wrote this on his blog last night and I'm going to leave it for all of us to think about, inserting "Dad" where he wrote "Joanne". It is a powerful thought.

Written by Toben Heim:

"Last Sunday at church our pastor said, 'When we pray, we should pray BIG', so let's pray BIG tonight! Let's pray for nothing less than Dad's complete healing and restoration. That may be a scary prayer because we are putting it all on the line, but I believe that God loves nothing more than blowing peoples socks off as He reveals HIS glory! See you later socks!"

Thank you Toben...pray BIG!
Love,
Michelle