New News and Good News

So finally some good news with this whole cancer thing. I went to have another CT scan done last Friday. The purpose of the scan was to see how these drugs were working on the tumors. I was fairly sure, actually certain, that my tumors had grown because I have been having a bit more pain in my abdomen lately. I've had to take more delauded (a pain medication) in between my regular dose of morphine. So I was not expecting much good news. Well I was wrong and quite shocked when I read the report. The compared the results to a scan I had on 12/28/07. This new report said ...

There is interval decrease in size of innumerable metastatic hepatic lesions. For example, the metastatic lesion near the dome now measures approximately 3.3 x 3.7 cm froma previous measurement of approximately 5.1 x 4.7 cm. In the corresponding plane, the bulk of the largest mass in the posterior segment of the right lobe of the liver now measures approximately 6.5 x 4 cm from a previous measurement of approximately 9 x 6.5 cm.


So this is obviously pretty good news. We saw Dr. Hecht and Dr. Busuttil yesterday, my UCLA Oncologist and Surgeon. My Oncologist said this result was quite remarkable and not many people respond that well to drugs, especially to a drug that isn't even meant for the type of cancer I have. The plan will be to keep on this Nexavar until it looses it's steam and then we will see where we are at and figure out what to do from there.

At our appointment with my surgeon, Dr. Busuttil, everything went quite good there also. We are still on track to get a liver transplant as long as the tumors keep themselves confined to the liver. We found out I am a type O blood which means there are a lot of other people with type O ahead of me on the list. Type O is the most common blood type.

They did talk to us about one way to get a liver sooner then later. There is this rare disease that some people get where their bodies don't make a certain enzyme and they have to get a liver transplant. These people get to the top of this list very quickly, within a matter of days I think. Their liver has to be replaced but their old liver would work fine for someone like me who produces this enzyme that would kill off whatever it is this disease is. If all of that makes since. Basically they need a new liver but I could use their old one. There is no one like that at the hospital now but if one does show up the Docs will be keeping me in mind. It's a way, they say, to get a liver to someone who doesn't get "fair treatment" from the UNOS group who decided who gets the livers. It's not that it isn't fair treatment, but someone like me gets dropped through the cracks because of the type of cancer I have. Maybe someday they will fix that but for now we have to deal with it the way it is.

Right now I am still not listed on the transplant list. I am going tomorrow to get the last of the labs done. Once the results get sent to UCLA they will send my info to the insurance co. to get approval. At that point I've been told the insurance co. will want me to get some more labs done. After I do those they will review the results and hopefully get approved. I am through with the UCLA side of things, that all went very good. Now it shouldn't be much longer. Lets hope.

Thank you all for checking in on us. Jenna and Jonathan are doing great! We all just hang out and do our thing. Jonathan is getting so big. He actually stood up on his own the other day. He pulled himself up from a sitting position. I almost crapped my pants. I think he did!