Biopsies Clean

E. received a call from the Physician's Assistant at MD Anderson this afternoon. The results of his biopsies came back and they are all CLEAN. Everything looks good!

N.E.D.!!!

N. E. D.

Three simple little letters that mean so much.

No Evidence of Disease!

E. and I both came to Texas with good feelings. I was confident the news would be good. Yet, I had that little nagging of self-doubt in the back of my head. What if the news was bad? Would it be that much worse since I had convinced myself it was going to be good? Thankfully, I don't have to worry about that right now. It is all good.

E. had his labs on Sunday, his PET/CT scan on Monday and his Endoscopic Ultrasound on Tuesday. Today, we met with the doctor to go over the results.

• Labs

Look good. Everything was well within the normal limits. Matter of fact, E.'s blood sugar was the best it has been in a long time.

• Endoscopic Ultrasound

One little hiccup in the test was that E. still had undigested food in his stomach. He was given instructions not to eat for six hours prior to the procedure, but we knew that last time, six hours wasn't enough. Therefore, E. didn't have anything by mouth for twelve hours prior to the procedure and his last meal was easily digested Chinese food. It obviously still wasn't sufficient. Aside from the food blocking part of the view of the stomach, everything looked good. It was a completely NORMAL EGD (Esophagogastroduodenoscopy . . . say that three times). Multiple biopsies were taken as part of the procedure, but those results won't be available for a few more days, or possibly a week.

• PET/CT Scan

Nothing "lit up" on the scans. No pesky little glowing areas. According to the report, "There are no sites of abnormal radiotracer uptake along the length of the esophagus to suggest recurrent or metastatic esophageal carcinoma." Basically, E.'s cancer hasn't come back in the esophagus and it hasn't spread to other areas. You can't ask for anything better than that!

What now?

Right now, we're still in the "wait and see" mode. As you may recall, the surgeon had originally said that if E. could maintain a "period of stability" for approximately six months, he would offer him surgery. That is still the current plan. We will return for another PET/CT scan in 3 to 4 months and if E. is still N.E.D. at that time, it sounds like surgery would be offered.

Dr. M. explained that if E. continues to have no evidence of disease, he will have two options: 1. surgery or 2. "watch and see." The doctor stated that surgery offered to a Stage IV patient is really "outside of the box" as most surgeons and hospitals would never offer it. Timing is important, especially for Stage IV patients, he explained. If a patient has the surgery only to have metastatic cancer months later, the surgery was really a waste of time and effort. Yet, he also stated that he has never regretted performing surgery on a Stage IV patient when the right circumstances presented themselves. He seemed optimistic that E. was going to present "the right circumstances."

Surgery is not for everyone though. It is a MAJOR surgery that has lifelong implications. Quality of life can be affected. Dr. M. stated that it really is an individual decision. Without surgery, in all likelihood, the cancer would come back. But with surgery, the cancer could come back anyway. As Dr. M. said, we'll all think about it and cross that bridge when we get there.

In the meantime, continue loving and living life.

Which we fully intend on doing!

S.

More Disney

Ever been subjected to a never-ending slide show of the family reunion? Well, this is kinda like that, so feel free to click that little red box in the corner and go find something more interesting. You know, like folding laundry or doing dishes or something. :)

Our days were color coded in an effort to not lose anybody.

It worked. Unfortunately.

I'm not saying I wanted to lose my family.

Well, not permanently.

But for a few minutes might have been okay.

They found me every single stinkin' time.

Peanut rode the rocket ships with dad.

He loved it.

Almost as much as the carousel.

I think "It's a Small World" was his favorite though.

He loved all the colorful scenery and the cheerful songs.

The older boys described that particular ride as "torture."

So we went on it again.

We had much to celebrate on this trip.

Our family.

A first birthday.

First time to Disneyland.

No evidence of disease.

No evidence of disease.

Did I mention "no evidence of disease?"

Peanut was awesome.

He hung out in his stroller.

He was carried in the front pack.

And the back pack.

He explored the kid-friendly less-crowded zones.

But his favorite spot was in daddy's arms.

Disneyland . . . where dreams come true.

Dreams were wished.

Hmmm . . . daddy's arms.

Look familiar?

This was actually Mickey and Minnie Mouse shirt day,

but we didn't get any great pictures of our shirts.

Darn it.

Shhhh . . . Peanut's sleeping.

That means you too Mickey Mouse . . . shhhh.

Can you guess what the "shirt of the day" was?

Go Nevada Wolfpack!

Ten people wearing Nevada t-shirts and

the most common comment?

"You guys from Nev-AHHH-duh?"

The kids came up with some great responses.

"Nope, we're from Oklahoma.

They were just out of Oklahoma shirts."

We enjoyed California Adventure just as much as Disneyland.

California Screamin' was a great roller-coaster.

The Maliboomer was a favorite amongst those brave enough.

Soarin' over California was another hit.

And we all absolutely loved the Aladdin show . . .

we highly recommend it.

Color of the day = green!

Favorite hang-out of the day = dad's arms!

The trip would just not have been complete

without visiting the Big Guy himself.

Peanut was teaching him a thing or two about respecting body space.

Arms' length, Mister.

One of the boys' favorite teachers is an ole Disney pro

who gave us many useful tips and suggestions.

Each and every one of the boys asked Mickey Mouse,

"Do you know Mrs. O?"

Can you imagine their reaction

when Mickey enthusiastically nodded yes?!?

Only 247 more slides coming up.

Just joking.

Well, maybe.

S.

Scanxiety

It's time.

It's time to head back to Texas.

The anxiety (or "scanxiety" to most cancer patients) has been creeping up. We've pushed it aside time and time again, but it's persistent, the little bugger. It just won't give up. And as we get closer to the appointments, it adds pressure and frequency. We feel it.

The PET/CT scan is scheduled for Monday followed by the Endoscopic Ultrasound on Tuesday. We don't meet with the doctor, so presumably won't get any results, until Wednesday. Just hoping for three little letters . . . N.E.D. (No Evidence of Disease.)

I never thought we'd love three little letters so much.

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy Birthday

to you!

Happy Birthday

to you!

Happy Birthday

dear Peanut!

Happy Birthday

to you!

E1

Cancer has reared it's ugly head again. Not for E. though (or at least not that we know of), but rather for E.'s dad . . . E1. While on our way home from Disneyland, we received the call that E1 was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Some quick googling and we discovered that if you've got to have cancer, prostate cancer is probably the one to have. Matter of fact, we read that the majority of men (like 90%) that die after age 70 have prostate cancer. That's not to say that they die of prostate cancer, but rather they die *with* prostate cancer.

We had little information to go on, but E1 indicated radiation treatment was in his near future. We quickly concluded that E1 would need to stay with us to obtain his radiation treatments in the big city and so, after a little bit of rearranging, E1 now has a bedroom at our house.

E. ran and picked up his dad from Podunk, Nevada for a doctor's appointment in Reno to presumably start the process. We were able to review his biopsy results and this is what we learned:

* You may recall from E.'s diagnosis, cancer staging is based on T, N and M scores. (T for the Tumor, N for the lymph Nodes and M for the Metastasis.) E1's T score is a T1. That is great news. But, he hasn't yet had any further testing to determine his N or M scores.

* E1's PSA level was 5.5. Again, great news.

* E1's Gleason score was 7. Scores under 6 are the best. Scores of 7 and above are considered aggressive cancers, but can go above 20. While E1's score of 7 indicates it has the potential to be an aggressive cancer, it is on the very low end of that.

Right now, based on this information we have, E1 is diagnosed with Stage I Prostate Cancer.

Had E1's biopsy results only tested positive in one area, he would have been eligible for surgery. But because he has three positive biopsies in different areas, surgery is not considered the best option.

The course of treatment recommended is radiation. Three copper flakes will be surgically inserted into the cancerous areas of the prostate, which will essentially be used as "targets" for the radiation (as we understand it). (One common treatment for prostate cancer consists of seed radiation . . . seeds are inserted in the prostate that emit radiation over a period of time. For whatever reason, this type of treatment has not been recommended for E1. We're actually a bit grateful for that, as patients undergoing seed radiation have to stay away from children.)

We got E1 settled into his new room and were ready for an onslaught of doctors' appointments followed up presumably by the start of radiation. Ummm, ya.

E1 is scheduled to have the copper targets inserted on April 8th.

He is then scheduled for a CT scan (and a simulation for the radiation) on April 15th. (This is also hopefully when we will get the N and M scores.)

And then, radiation can be scheduled to begin.

For NINE weeks. Radiation every day Monday through Friday, for nine weeks. Each radiation session supposedly takes a grand total of six minutes of actual radiation.

So, E1 is home again and will return in about a month. And then, like his son, he's going to kick some cancer butt.

S.

A Fantabulous Time!

Disneyland was wonderful!

We rode all the rides.

We saw all the shows.

We did it all!

And had a blast!