GREAT NEWS FROM PITTSBURGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We just got out of Dr. Bartlett's office. We spent all day over there getting a CT scan and then waiting on our appointment and finally left around 4:30 Eastern time. It was an awful wait, but very worth it. Mark hadn't eaten for 19 hours, so we quickly ran to Taco Bell to feed him (not very glamorous, but the first thing we saw after leaving the Cancer Center).
Anyway, the good news is that Dr. Bartlett thinks he can help Mark. He looked at the CT scan and his only uncertainty is the area of tumor around the bile duct. He said that they would go in and remove the primary tumor first and then go there second. If the tumor is "stuck" to all the important structures they may not be able to do much more and have to stop, but if the chemo is working and they can remove the tumor, they will procede with taking out all of the disease they can find in the peritoneum, remove the omentum and then infuse with heated chemo. Mark will be cut from top to bottom and probably spend a few days in ICU and possibly 2 weeks in the hospital. Dr. Bartlett says that cancer cells all die when heated to this temperature in a petri dish. They have had good success with survival and improved prognosis doing this procedure.
The other positive is a study they are doing here taking out Mark's own cancer tissue and making a specific vaccine for Mark's body using this tissue that will be administered back to him after he finishes chemo. It's still in it's infancy in this type of cancer,but Dr. Bartlett says "we hope to hit a home run with this one". They have had success with this in melanoma up here.
We are very excited about the news and pray that everything will fall into place now. We know that it is a huge surgery and not without risk. Mark will have to stop Avastin for 6 weeks before surgery and chemo 4 weeks before surgery, so we will need to talk with Dr. Farmer and plan out a date to get back up here. Mark will also get a prolonged break from chemo after the surgery. I think he is looking forward to that.
We plan to go out a little tonight and enjoy some of the sights in Pittsburgh. It is a pretty city with a lot of history and beautiful architecture. Unfortunately we don't have much time to enjoy it since we fly back tomorrow morning for Calen's baseball tournament. That's okay though, we got everything we came here for and are on cloud 9 tonight.
Thanks so much for all the prayers and well wishes. God bless you all!!!!!!
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10 comments:
AWESOME! I am so happy to hear your good news. God is good. We love you guys
That's the best news!!! We are so happy for you guys. Hugs to you and the kids,
The Caudills
Fantastic! We were all waiting to hear your news..thanks for posting it so quickly!
This is awesome news. Thank you for letting us know so quickly that our prayers for today were answered. Have a good trip home.
We are so happy to hear that. I know at least a couple of us were praying for you at 10 AM this morning.
Great!!! We'll give thanks and continue to pray for complete healing.
We're so glad to hear the news! Keep up the positive thoughts and prayers. The Richards
We are so happy to read the good news. I appreciate that you are so willing to let us know everything so quickly. There are many many of us who care!
Great! This is the news we've been waiting and praying for. The Dewallys.
I heard about the news from Lou and was very excited. All the best with the coming surgery. Good stuff!
Jesus
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