Today we met with the Doctor and I have to say I really like her. She's very upfront and tells you what she thinks. She told us that she reviewed Christopher's old scans and that the good news was everything seems to be contained to liver (which we knew) and there is no cancer to be found in the lyphnods (which is really good news), however she doesn't really see shrinkage per say in the last few months; more stablization than anything.
She has scheduled three test (blood work, MRI and PET scan) and from whatever information they get from that there can be up to three options for us. They are as follows:
Radiation Teatment
This is not your typical radiation, they put a tube through the groan and inject small beads of radation to the liver. This is only an option if none of the cancer is pressing itself against a blood vessil in the liver. This treatment would be done every 4 weeks - however chemo would need to be stopped 4 week prior to treatment and 4 weeks after treatments.
Glass Treatment
This is a fairly new treatment and has only been done in a few cases. They inject small glass beads into the liver in the hopes that it will move into the cancer cells and clog their blood flow - in turn killing it.
Chemo
Depending on the scan she might suggest a change in the chemo drugs.
Either way, she wants to see even more shrinkage and no stablization in the cancer. She was a little dumbfounded in Christopher's paper work. She said, "I don't understand, your liver functions were getting worse - then a month ago they got better and better over the last month." So we shared with her the herbal treatments that we have been doing. She had never heard of the herb we were using, but it seems to be doing something.
Tomorrow will be a fun filled day. We did the blood test today, the MRI is tomorrow and the PET scan is Thursday. Tomorrow we will also meet with some other people - one is a person who is going to try and help Christopher with the numbness in his feet.
We are done for the day and plan on relaxing since tomorrow will be a long day. Look for an update tomorrow!
1 comment:
I didn't realize you guys were out of town--how wonderful that you were able to consult with this center! If you mom needs anything, let us know :) You both are in our thoughts and prayers.
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