EXHALE! That is the word of the day for us. After holding our collective breath for a few weeks, we finally received some good news after Hunter’s scans from yesterday. 1) The cancer has not spread to any other part ofhis body 2) The tumor is not in his left lung 3) The tumor that was in between the upper & lower lobe of his right lung has shrunk significantly and is almost gone 4) The cluster of tumors in his right upper lobe are still there and did not shrink, but the good news is that they did not grow either. These were the ones growing at a very rapid pace from 0 to 6mm each in just 4 weeks. They are still there in a clump, but not any bigger. So what now? Well,there are some decisions to be made after the doctors in Denver and Houston consult over the next 2 days. Here are the options. 1) Surgery is a must, but the timing is in question as far as which of the next steps we take. The surgery will take place at MD Anderson whenever that time comes. If I had to guess based on his previous lung surgeries, we would be there approximately 7-10 days. 2) Option 1: Continue on his current regiment of chemo treatment for 2 more rounds, then surgery (approximately 6 more weeks) 3) Option 2: Undergo an experimental breathing treatment in Houston for 2 rounds. This is called IL2. Each round would consist of 3 weeks on and 1 week off, then repeat one more time. The good news is we would only have to go to MD Anderson at the beginning of each cycle, but then could administer it from home the rest of the time. Surgery would then be after that. (approximately 8 weeks). There have only been 4 others who have had this treatment, but all four had favorable results. I don’t know what exactly those results were, but I like what I heard from the doctor. 4) What I do know is that we cannot to both treatments at the same time. What I don’t know is whether we can do both treatments, Option 1, then Option 2 or vice versa. More to come on that over the next few days. The idea is to get his tumors to a stable point and to kill any microscopic disease that we can’t see. We need to figure out what is the best path forward for Hunter and will decide that probably by Friday. Either way, I cannot tell you how happy we were to get this news today. It seems like since October I haven’t had anything positive to post and now I feel as though we caught a break. His cancer is still there and he has a very long road ahead of him, but at least we can stop and catch our breath for a bit before diving into the next treatments. Thank you for all your thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement. God knows how discouraged we have been and needed this today. Talk to you soon.
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 22:40:43 +0000
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