I'm Glad That's OVER!

Thank you for prayers. The scans and the day has gone smooth as ever. It is very obvious that our prayers are being heard. My first concern is to get him feeling better and manage some of these symptoms and that is the first thing Dr. Tsao went over. She said there is a Supportive Care team here at MD Anderson who will see us tomorrow to teach us a lot of "tricks in their bag" on how to make him feel better and just get healthier so to speak. I pray they have a lot of tricks, because we need them! Results are that the chemo treatments he completed the past 3 months did not suppress the cancer. On the scans it appears they have grown in measurement since we were here in April. The spot on his vertebrae seems to have grown a small amount. She wants him to talk to our radiologists about getting those 'spot treated' by radiation. I point blank asked her, "Is it worth it?" and she said "Most definitely!, it will ease some of his pain. " I was encouraged by that. She also recommends that he stay on the zometo treatments to help keep if from spreading more in the bones and to protect the bone around the area it has spread to already. Finally, she wants to try another type of milder chemotherapy that is generally tolerated well. Dad chirped in that he didn't want to try any more chemo if it wasn't worth it and she looked at him with total understanding and said, "I understand, but you won't know until you try. We can try it and if you don't like it or see results then we will stop." So that is the plan. We are going to take a little break from all treatment, see about spot radiating the neck, and try the new chemo in about 3 or 4 weeks. I really hope that tomorrow brings great comfort with new ways to treat his annoying symptoms. That would be a huge blessing in itself! Much love to all of you for praying. Please continue to do so and THANK YOU!!!!

One final note, these doctors here are something else. They are very well respected and seem kind of "high and mighty" if you know what I mean. Well, this precious lady, Dr. Anne Tsao, came in one last time to explain the results and her plan to mom and dad and she did so with such compassion and tenderness. It is amazing how that can work for those of us on this side of the news. She is amazing. Very smart and to the point, but patting dad's knee and loving on him the whole time! When we got up to leave he told her thank you and she reached over to give him a big hug and as she did, she kissed him on the cheek. She told him to hang in there that he was very loved by his family and then she did the same to mom. Sweetest, kindest gesture I have ever seen from a doctor. Now if that is not answered prayer, I don't know what is! God was in that very room.

Dr. Tsao normally request scans after two treatments of any new chemo drug and a re evaluation appointment. Seeing how hard it is on dad to travel she told us that she normally does not do this for patients but that for him she would offer her expertise and recommendations over the phone to Dr. Becdach/Martha based on scans from home. That is great news since he needs to feel a lot better to take on this kind of traveling. We are blessed yet once again.