The Latest

I so wish I was writing this update with fabulous news on the treatment front for our dad... but unfortunately that's not the case. We are still doing all that we can to remain optimistic and keep positive... but we are going to need the prayers and the positive mojo to go into overdrive with the latest news we have received. Just before the holidays we met with the surgeon and talked about either continuing with more chemo or going straight to surgery... we played the waiting game for quite a while with lots of doctors out of the office for the 2 weeks over the holidays. My dad got the last round of chemo and then the team of doctors (that seems to be getting bigger and bigger... which is great to have so many smart minds all talking about what’s best for my dad) decided to do one more PET scan and determine from there if they would go straight to surgery (if the cancer wasn't shrinking) or do one more round of chemo (if the tumor was responding well to the treatments.)

When we went in for the PET scan results we were super bummed to learn that the cancer is not only not responding to the chemo... but it has spread and is more active. They found a new spot on his liver and a new spot on his left femur... never what you want to hear from an oncologist. The doctors have come to the conclusion that because this is a "radiation induced tumor" (meaning, the radiation he received for the Hodgkin's Disease 20 years ago, caused this cancer-- how lame... right?!!) it is drug resistant, aggressive, and clever... it is finding away to keep thriving despite the drugs being pumped into Tommy Boy (what BASTARD cancer cells!) SO what does all that mean??

It means that curing this is no longer an option. Surgery is off the table... and we try to manage the bastard cells taking over. We meet with Dr. Ko at UCSF on Thursday and will learn more about what this means and what our dad's quality of life will be like. We are all feeling like we got punched in the stomach and a little pissed that we really can't seem to catch a break with this. My dad is still his same old self... and being our rock (go figure?!) Thank goodness he can hold it together... because it’s hard for us to at some points. He started a new chemo yesterday... and this one is supposed to be pretty gnarly (horrible side effects, and kind of just going to beat him up for about 6 weeks). So please pray that this chemo kicks some cancer ass... and that my dad tolerates it well... and that we can all remain optimistic despite the bleakness of the situation.

Thank you all so so so much for all of the love and support you have given us thus far... and for continuing it was we trudge down this new road of managing this bullshit cancer, instead of curing it.

Lots of love,
Whitney

A new year :)

Happy New Year!

I know a lot of you have been waiting on an update... I think we have all been trying to figure out the best way to communicate the overwhelming lack of information. The good news is there is no bad news - so, that's a start :)

Dad finished up his second round of chemo then had a PET scan to see if this chemo was working. Esophageal cancer is typically treated with a chemo cocktail called EOX. Remember when we found out that the weird thing on the lung was lung cancer (that was fun...)? Well, we also found out that the results of the DNA testing meant to assess his tumor's resistance to certain chemos determined that EOX would likely not work for dad's stubborn bastard tumor. So, the think tank decided to go with something different. We took a "calculated risk" and decided to try a less conventional chemo mix in the hopes that this one would do the trick.

Dr. Ko (UCSF GI Oncologist) was only comfortable with this approach if we agreed to do 2 rounds, then a PET. If the PET didn't show the results we wanted then he'd do 2 rounds of EOX before surgery. The DNA testing to show a tumor's resistance is still very new so Dr. Ko isn't completely sold on relying on this test 100%. He relies on the data and the tests and the fact that EOX usually works.

So the PET -- looks like this chemo is working on the lung (which we really weren't too concerned with anyway since the surgeon could take out that entire chunk during the esophagus surgery). The esophageal tumor, however, shows no signs of improvement. Same size, no metabolic activity change. It's hard not to see this is disappointing, but Dr. Jablons (UCSF Surgeon) made a really good point: "You have to stop the freight train before you can back it up." So no news is actually good news? It could have been bigger or more active. No reaction is actually a sign of the cancer responding to this treatment.

We're still sort of in a holding pattern because Dr. Javeed (primary oncologist in Folsom) and Dr. Jablons are leaning toward doing the surgery right away. The rationale for this being that if the chemo isn't taking care of the cancer then getting it out is the best way to ensure we don't waste another minute.

Dr. Ko is on vacation so we'd like to chat with him before deciding on surgery now or not. Since dad is handling the chemo so well he decided to do another round of this one while we wait for Ko to come back and make his recommendation.

So it looks like surgery won't happen until early February at the soonest. We will be sure to update everyone as soon as we talk to Dr. Ko - he's our favorite and the most likely to give us some nice pearls of wisdom and hope :)

Love you all -- extremely grateful for the support and prayers!

xoxo,

~kyle