Summer 2012!

It has been a great Summer and is going by way too fast! I had my first CT scan at the end of May and it was all clean! I will continue to have scans every 3 months for a couple years. My next one is at the beginning of September.

We went to Puerto Rico in July and had a blast! The girls get bigger by the day and are doing really great! 

Home and Great News

Sorry for the late post-- we got home to Austin on Monday and I am recovering well. Recovery is going much faster this time. The worst part is not being able to pick up the girls.
We got a call from my surgeons office on Tuesday with the pathology report. The tumor was 90 percent dead which shows a great response to chemo and all lymph nodes were free of cancer! I am officially cancer free! It is actually a strange feeling after all of these months dealing with it. We are so relieved and ready to put this chapter behind us. My first follow up scan is in 8 weeks. I wish it wasn't so soon!

Room Update

Stacie was moved to room P5-02 and she'll be here for the remainder of her stay.

here's the actual address:

MD Anderson Cancer Center

1515 holcombe blvd

patient room P5-02

houston, tx 77030

Surgery Success

we just spoke with Dr. Aloia (Stacie's surgeon) and he said the surgery went great. it took about 3 hours with most of the time being spent collecting tissue/lymph nodes for further examination. she had a lot of scar tissue from the previous surgery which made digging them out more difficult, but he also said it was expected. the lymph nodes were not enlarged or suspicious to the eye, but the biopsy results will let us know for sure (it will be ready in about 7 days).

as for the tumor itself, he said, "it was really small" and showed us a picture of it on his iphone. they got huge margins (thankfully we didn't have to worry about that issue this time around...) and saw no other signs of tumors or growth anywhere in the liver.

all in all, it sounds like a success. we'll be able to see her in the recovery room within the hour and then she'll be moved to an overnight recovery room for more monitoring. i'll continue posting if anything major comes up, and hopefully Stacie will feel good enough to post in the next few days.

thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers!

- eric

Feeling Great!

It has been 2 weeks since my last chemo infusion and I am feeling great-- almost back to normal. Eric and I leave on Sunday for MDAnderson. I have scans on Monday to ensure nothing has come up in the last couple weeks and then surgery is on Tuesday. I am sooo ready to get this over with! Eric will update the blog after surgery to let everyone know how it went. I'm praying everything will go as planned and this is the last hospital visit!

One More Treatment to Go!

I started my last cycle of chemo before surgery (and hopefully forever) yesterday and now have only one treatment left next Monday!
The plan is to have two weeks off between chemo and surgery on the 27th in Houston. My surgeon is going to take a bunch of lymph nodes and if they are all clear of disease I will be all done and on the monitoring path!!! This would be amazing and I pray for it everyday!

MDAnderson Second Opinion

We went to MDA this past week for a special liver scan and a second opinion on the path forward. My surgical oncologist there delivered the great news that it definitely had gotten smaller and has changed in character, which apparently is a good thing. MDA and my oncologist here agree that the best thing to do is two more cycles of chemo and then surgery to remove the lesion. I have decided to use a surgeon at MDA this time and surgery is scheduled for March 27th. I love my previous surgeon but he does big complicated surgeries (which i had the first time) and my new one specializes in cholangiocarcinoma.

I have had a pretty good week off. The chemo fatigue is compounding and I feel pretty tired a lot of the time. This week was the first time in months I have not taken pain meds for the back pain that we believe is caused from chemo. That alone is a reason to celebrate! The back pain has been the most difficult part of chemo for me.

It's Smaller!

Yay! It was a great appointment. The lesion has gone from 7mm x 1cm to 6.5mm in diameter- or 40 percent smaller! The plan is to do 3 more cycles of chemo before discussing surgical options. All we do know is that it has to come out, no matter the size!
I just looked at my off weeks from chemo and they include the Superbowl, Addison's baptism and our six year anniversary!! Yay!

The Results

After waiting a painful 36 hours, I got the call on Wednesday from Karyn, Dr. Chadha's nurse. When I answered the phone, her first words were "It's all great news and Dr. Chadha said to tell you "big smiley face."" I obviously wanted to know what his definition of "great" is but she said we would discuss everything at my appointment on Monday. We are so relieved that things are headed in the right direction. The past 9 weeks of chemo have been pretty tough so it feels great to know that I am responding well to it. I'll update more tomorrow from infusion after my appointment with Dr. Chadha :)

Happy New Year

With one week until my first scan since beginning chemo the scanxiety has really set in. For those not familiar with the term it is just like it sounds- anxiety building up to a CT scan. I am very hopeful that the lesions are either stable or getting smaller and praying hard that there are no more anywhere else. Not exactly how I wanted to start the new year, but it has to be done.

2011 was the best and worst of times for me. Addison was best thing that happened to us this year and this unwanted journey was obviously the worst. I look forward to a great 2012 and beating this cancer. This year my New Years's Resolutions are very different from years back, funny how a few months changes things.

NYR:
1. Enjoy each day and live in the present
2. Beat cancer
3. Take a great beach vaca