It has been a crazy couple of weeks--phew!!! We were at the Randolph Fair with the kids' 4H market animals August 19--26th, and then Ryan and I flew out to Illinois for his next CTCA visit on the 28th. We just got home on Thursday, and are finally settling back in to the home-routine, and prepping for school to start for 4 of our 5 little loves next week!
I spent some time yesterday updating our facebook, twitter, and this blog's name. I felt it was time to do that because we have been throwing down with cancer long enough now to understand that change happens relatively slowly. I don't have things to share about Ryan's condition or care on a daily basis, and often not even on a weekly or monthly basis. I do and will continue to share everything we experience as it happens in regards to the cancer. But from now on, I am also going to share more of our day to day life. As chaotic and comical and lovey as it is, I will never have a shortage of things to write about! And as it relates to Ryan's cancer--these are the things I really want all of us to be able to remember. Blood counts and cell growth are a big part of our lives now---but the best part of our lives are how we laugh and love and genuinely live each day, together.
Now, the Oncologist appointment: Ryan had another CT scan done on the 29th. This is what we were told: In May's CT scan, there were lymph nodes in his neck and chest that were enlarged. These did not show up on June's PET scan. They did show up again on this CT scan (August 29th), and they have grown larger since May. There is no way to know if this is more cancer growth without a biopsy, and although the lymph nodes are larger than normal, they are still not large enough to get a good sample from. Ryan's oncologist sought the opinion of 2 radiologists' on this scan, and all three of them agree the best course of action right now is to leave everything as is and allow time for the lymph nodes to grow large enough for a thorough and successful biopsy. So we go back in two months, at the end of October. They will do a PET scan first, then a CT scan, and if the lymph nodes show continued growth, then a biopsy.
The growth they saw in his abdomen on Junes scan is gone now--so it was just still-healing tissue from his initial surgery. The rest of his abdomen is clear, 0 growth--which is wonderful news!!! His blood counts are all normal, and his overall health is as good as it can get: his body is tolerating the chemo, and the worst side effects are decently managed with other meds. The lack of growth in his abdomen means the chemo is working. If the cancer has spread to his lymph nodes and that is what is growing there, that does not mean the chemo is not working. It is possible for there to be small areas of growth when everything else is stagnant---all they can do for that is remove the growing tumors if possible.
It's not at all the news we were expecting, and I asked as many questions as I could come up with in the shock of the moment, but there's a lot I still don't understand. Google is failing me drastically--there just isn't much info to be found. So basically we know all that we are going to for the next 2 months. Ryan has pretty much taken it all in stride, he's very capable of not worrying about something until someone says "you need to worry about this now". I don't work that way, but there is literally absolutely nothing I can do right now...except pray, and have faith. Seems pretty odd that those are the things I come to last, when there is nothing else for me to hold onto...how different might this whole experience be if I were able to lean on prayer and faith first?
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