Jan 24th, UAB Day

Well, we're finally back from a long day in Birmingham. Mark's first appointment was at 7am, so we spent the night last night and got started early this morning. We arrived in Auburn around 6:30 this evening, just in time to pick up Emily and get to Calen's basketball game before it started.

We met with Dr. Heslin today who went over the CT scan from earlier this morning. He didn't see any change at all in the CT scan when comparing it to October's initial scan. The colon tumor hasn't changed nor has the small spot on the liver. It was not great news, but not terrible news either. We had hoped that they would see shrinkage of the tumor or possibly no tumor. On the other hand, there wasn't an increase in size and no more spread of disease. What does all of this mean? Well, Mark's chemo is keeping the disease from spreading which is good since he has an aggressive type of cancer, but this far into the chemo we should see some shrinkage if the chemo is going to work. We had a long discussion about options. We will meet with Dr. Farmer on Monday to discuss the plan from a medicine approach and whether or not we need to consider a different type of chemo regimen. Another option may be surgery. There is a procedure where they go in and remove the primary tumor and debulk the peritoneum of all the cancer they can see and directly following the surgery, they infuse heated chemotherapy into the abdomen and let it sit for a while. It is a very extensive surgery and is only done in a few centers around the country. It would require a prolonged hospital stay. UAB is referring us to MD Anderson to visit with them about the procedure and to see if Mark would be a candidate. (Yes, we may finally get into the place after all). We should hear something next week about the initial visit to discuss this. Of course, we are now going to put off the trip to Memorial Sloan Kettering and wait to hear what MD Anderson says. Dr. Heslin knows a lot of the doctors from MSK and he actually trained up there. The ones doing this procedure from there have left and are now in Pittsburg and Houston (MD Anderson).

Later today, we went to the genetics appointment. Mark was referred since he was only 35 at diagnosis. They plugged the history into a formula and came up with a 0.13% to an 11% chance that there is a genetic component to Mark's early cancer diagnosis. The testing will take up to 6 weeks to come back, but if they find a hereditary gene then Mark's siblings will need to be tested for it as well as our children.

It was an emotional day for both Mark and I. I think we were so ready to hear better results from the CT scan that it was hard to hear otherwise. Mark is feeling good and strong. He continues to go to the office and is even back to working out some at the gym. He is determined to fight this and is ready for the challenge. I can tell you this, my husband has definitely become my hero-just seeing him stay so strong and focused and ready for his next challenge has been amazing. I know he's going to beat this.

I can't sign off without a note on Calen's basketball game. Again a nail biter coming down to the wire and Calen got the last second shot off while down by 2 points and was fouled. (No, I'm not making this up). With no time on the clock, he makes 2 free throws to send the team into overtime. We went into 2 overtimes and won it by 1 point with Joshua Anders making the winning shot with 3 seconds left. Mark was so excited he was shaking.

Keep Mark in your thoughts and prayers. I know it works. I asked God for something very specific today that I thought would never happen (and not a basketball game win either) and I sat and watched things fall into place that allowed my request to happen. There is no other way to explain it except God answering my prayer and giving me my miracle today. Thanks again to Debbie and Richie Brooks and Duane and Stacy Brandon for your help with the kids. Our trip to Birmingham wouldn't have been possible without your help. God bless you all!!