"There are always flowers for those who want to see them."
- Henri Matisse
I love this.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Trifecta
Biopsy results are back.
Good news: The esophageal cancer has not metastasized to the lung.
Bad news: It seems to be its very own lung cancer... thus giving Tom Ewing 3 simultaneous cancers (melanoma, esophageal and lung).
More good news is that we definitely caught this lung cancer earlier than we ever would have without all of this other stuff going on. I'll take my silver lining however I can get it these days. We can do chemo and then surgery -- when they go in to remove the esophagus, they can go ahead and take this jacked up chunk of lung at the same time. Dr. Jablons (surgeon) is one of the best in the country and it sounds like we have exactly the right person lined up to take this on.
What's a little more disappointing at this point is the latest in what has proven to be a series of setbacks as far as treatment goes. We got the DNA results back from the esophageal tumor (I don't really know what that means) and it turns out that of the 3 drugs recommended for chemo, this nugget of a tumor appears to be resistant to two of them. Dr. Javeed and Dr. Ko are now at odds as to the next best course of action. Dr. Ko doesn't buy it and wants to move forward as planned. Dr. Javeed can't seem to feel good about anything unless there are 100 studies to back it. I, unfortunately, am about 7,000 credits short of a medical degree so need to trust that these people are weighing all of the options and making the most informed decision possible. Dr. Javeed is calling on 3 other experts around the country - I will now refer to them all as The Tom Ewing Trifecta Think Tank. They now need to figure out which chemo cocktail will take care of the stubborn esophageal tumor and also what makes sense to attack the new lung cancer. It isn't like Tom Ewing can just go and get any ol' text book cancer, leave it to him to make these doctors earn their paycheck :)
Needless to say - no chemo will be going on this Monday. Dad said he was glad to be able to get a few more days of work in before the fun begins. At least there's that (?)
I feel confident that they will come up with the right mix of drugs for all of this cancer - hopefully he can start treatment as soon as Wednesday... I think it's about time we caught a break, huh?
--Kyle
Good news: The esophageal cancer has not metastasized to the lung.
Bad news: It seems to be its very own lung cancer... thus giving Tom Ewing 3 simultaneous cancers (melanoma, esophageal and lung).
More good news is that we definitely caught this lung cancer earlier than we ever would have without all of this other stuff going on. I'll take my silver lining however I can get it these days. We can do chemo and then surgery -- when they go in to remove the esophagus, they can go ahead and take this jacked up chunk of lung at the same time. Dr. Jablons (surgeon) is one of the best in the country and it sounds like we have exactly the right person lined up to take this on.
What's a little more disappointing at this point is the latest in what has proven to be a series of setbacks as far as treatment goes. We got the DNA results back from the esophageal tumor (I don't really know what that means) and it turns out that of the 3 drugs recommended for chemo, this nugget of a tumor appears to be resistant to two of them. Dr. Javeed and Dr. Ko are now at odds as to the next best course of action. Dr. Ko doesn't buy it and wants to move forward as planned. Dr. Javeed can't seem to feel good about anything unless there are 100 studies to back it. I, unfortunately, am about 7,000 credits short of a medical degree so need to trust that these people are weighing all of the options and making the most informed decision possible. Dr. Javeed is calling on 3 other experts around the country - I will now refer to them all as The Tom Ewing Trifecta Think Tank. They now need to figure out which chemo cocktail will take care of the stubborn esophageal tumor and also what makes sense to attack the new lung cancer. It isn't like Tom Ewing can just go and get any ol' text book cancer, leave it to him to make these doctors earn their paycheck :)
Needless to say - no chemo will be going on this Monday. Dad said he was glad to be able to get a few more days of work in before the fun begins. At least there's that (?)
I feel confident that they will come up with the right mix of drugs for all of this cancer - hopefully he can start treatment as soon as Wednesday... I think it's about time we caught a break, huh?
--Kyle
Brain Age, BART and Biopsies
Kyle here -- just getting this started :)
We had a great meeting with Dr. Ko at UCSF yesterday. Dr. Ko is the GI Oncologist that Dr. Javeed works with. He was the perfect combination of brains, personality and hope. Oh... and he loves whitewater rafting so you know our dad was loving him :)
As most of you probably heard, the Bay Bridge had some issues the night before the appointment so Dad, Sheryl and Whitney drove to Walnut Creek and BARTed in. They missed the Civic Center stop helping Sheryl play Brain Age on Dad's Nintendo DS and ended up going to 16th St. and Mission... I think it's safe to say they were all a little frazzled by the liveliness of the mission. I picked them up and drove them to UCSF (just 2 blocks from my apartment).
The best takeaway from the appointment was that we don't need to wait on the results of the lung biopsy to start chemo. Chemo can start on Monday - finally! Dr. Ko is assuming that the lung biopsy will come back negative... but the chemo treatment plan will be the same anyway. He's got his chemo kit ready to go -- just need to get a few DVDs and he's pretty much set.
Since there was no leaving the city by automobile, I BARTed back with the others and am still trying to determine the best strategy for getting home (when and how are the two primary questions) -- tangent.
The lung biopsy was this morning... and it went extremely well. There were concerns about the size (it's super small) and whether or not they'd even be able to get enough to test. They figured they'd have to poke around a bunch of times and in between multiple scans, but they got it on the first try which was awesome. He had to be awake during the procedure because they would have to rely on him to modify his breathing if needed (freaky)... turns out he is a brilliant breather :)
We go to Dr. Javeed tomorrow for the results of the biopsy -- looking forward to putting the whole little lung blip behind us and getting this show on the road!
We had a great meeting with Dr. Ko at UCSF yesterday. Dr. Ko is the GI Oncologist that Dr. Javeed works with. He was the perfect combination of brains, personality and hope. Oh... and he loves whitewater rafting so you know our dad was loving him :)
As most of you probably heard, the Bay Bridge had some issues the night before the appointment so Dad, Sheryl and Whitney drove to Walnut Creek and BARTed in. They missed the Civic Center stop helping Sheryl play Brain Age on Dad's Nintendo DS and ended up going to 16th St. and Mission... I think it's safe to say they were all a little frazzled by the liveliness of the mission. I picked them up and drove them to UCSF (just 2 blocks from my apartment).
The best takeaway from the appointment was that we don't need to wait on the results of the lung biopsy to start chemo. Chemo can start on Monday - finally! Dr. Ko is assuming that the lung biopsy will come back negative... but the chemo treatment plan will be the same anyway. He's got his chemo kit ready to go -- just need to get a few DVDs and he's pretty much set.
Since there was no leaving the city by automobile, I BARTed back with the others and am still trying to determine the best strategy for getting home (when and how are the two primary questions) -- tangent.
The lung biopsy was this morning... and it went extremely well. There were concerns about the size (it's super small) and whether or not they'd even be able to get enough to test. They figured they'd have to poke around a bunch of times and in between multiple scans, but they got it on the first try which was awesome. He had to be awake during the procedure because they would have to rely on him to modify his breathing if needed (freaky)... turns out he is a brilliant breather :)
We go to Dr. Javeed tomorrow for the results of the biopsy -- looking forward to putting the whole little lung blip behind us and getting this show on the road!
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