Houston Trip Report

Dear Friends,

Well, we got back from Houston late yesterday so I thought I would blog a trip report before the weekend.

Wednesday, we had the day off in Houston while they worked on all the tests we did Tuesday. So we slept in late to get back some of the rest we had lost over the previous several days. We spent the afternoon at the Houston science museum at the terra cotta warrior exhibit from China's first emperor. It was fabulous! Well worth it if you have the chance to go. Then we spent the evening with Deanna's cousin and his beautiful family at their home. I was able to eat quite a bit of food normally.

On Thursday morning, we saw the doc again. The summary of the testing was that there has been little overall change since the last round of scans 4 months ago. The PET scan had some hot spots this time. However, after some research I discovered that in addition to active cancer, a PET scan can be set off by other things like inflammation, infection, and even dying cancer cells. That is why they always get a CT to go along with it and measure tumor size. Doc pulled up the Tuesday CT scan and the previous one for comparison and showed us two liver lesions. He thought the first one was slightly larger this time. The second had split into two halves with normal looking tissue in a gap between them. This one was rather like looking at a large thunderstorm on a radar scope when it begins to die. They often split into several smaller cells before they dissipate. The blood work and EKG were normal. He said he was surprised by the test results. Apparently he thought they should have been much worse, considering that there has been basically no chemo since the last round of scans.

I asked about all the advanced things they have at MD Anderson--the proton therapy, lasers, chroma, ultrasound, genetics, etc--and he said I was simply too far gone to qualify for any of these. Apparently, you only get advanced therapies if your cancer is easy to treat. If your cancer is hard to treat, you only get good old chemo. Seems somewhat backwards to me. No Soup For You!

He suggested three different types of chemo that may be easier on my blood, which we'll be discussing with our local doc this Tuesday. One of the first questions they asked me on Tuesday was what would I do if the only treatment available was chemo. I'm quite happy with my oncologist's chemo skills, so I told them we would not stay in Houston just for chemo. We would return to McKinney.

He made one more interesting comment. He said that patients that get esophageal surgery often have scarring that requires them to get stretched every week or so for up to a year--and then they are good to go. My GE doc said I have scarring in the esophagus...so maybe after a year of stretching maybe it will be good to go too.

We returned to the hotel, checked out, and loaded up the van, and then took the shuttle back to MD Anderson. The nutritionist had an earlier opening, so we went in early for our last appointment. She gave us a case of a new liquid food to try in the feeding tube. Tried it for the first time today. Still had intestinal distress, but not as bad as the other stuff.

That was the last appointment, so we went over to the hotel attached to the complex, the Rotary House. Great lunch at the Oaks restaurant, followed by a trip to the gift shop, and then hit the road for home.

It was a goal for so long to pursue the surgery, it seems I should be disappointed. But I'm not. This is simply a set of doors that we have confirmed are closed and that we don't to worry about any more. Deanna felt like we weren't meant to be there. We got okay test results, although not as good as we would have liked, got to visit a bit of Houston, see some family, to meet some fellow cancer fighters. It was a worthwhile trip.

Had a blood check today and numbers were ok. Will get stretched again Monday and see the doc Tuesday. Could be another round of chemo Wednesday or so.

Elizabeth got a different locker at school today, which will greatly relieve her stress.

The bank counter offered full price on the house. It is not worth their price, nor could we afford it anyway, so that one is off the table for now.

Thank you all for your continued prayers.

Yours in Christ,
-Mike