Tough Day ...

We met with the oncologist, pulmonologist, and surgeon today. The good news is the tumors in the brain are responding to the gamma knife and are getting smaller. The lung, however, was a source of bad news today. There is no way right now to tell definitively what is cancer and what is infection in the lung. The lung is 3/4 full of a mix of fluid, infection and tumor. It has grown out of the lung, through the ribs, and into the soft tissue. This is what is causing the increase in pain. There is also a pocket of fluid outside the lung that they believe is also a mix of fluid, infection and tumor. We met with the surgeon to see if anything could be done with that, even just to drain that pocket. The answer was a firm no, it's too dangerous at this point and could cause more problems. The only course of action is IV antibiotics. The pulmonologist said if we can't get the infection under control with antibiotics, down the road we may want to talk further about that option.

The oncologist said he was very disturbed by the fact that dad had one chemo treatment and the cancer is growing so rapidly. Even just one chemo treatment should have helped. It clearly did not work.

So, the bottom line now is this ... The oncologist is running out of options. Nothing can be done while there is infection. IF they are able to get the infection under control, and they aren't sure if they can, there is only one possible option and it's a very dangerous chemo drug. It has extremely serious side effects. The oncologist is going to take the weekend to "mull it over" and decide if he thinks it's even something talk about it. If they aren't able to get the infection under control, or the chemo isn't an option, we aren't able to do anything and dad will have six months at best.

We will meet with his oncologist and pulmonologist again on Monday. They will do another catscan to determine if the infection is improving. At that point we will discuss our next steps.

Mom and dad have spent the last couple of days making some very difficult decisions about level of care and life support as well as making sure other things are in order. Dad has broken down a couple times but is being strong and staying as positive as he can as it all settles in. He is feeling and looking much better today than he did earlier in the week. His balance and memory have improved and he is talking and joking and being his usual ornery self. We hope this is a sign the antibiotics are helping.

Today was tough and not the news we had expected so soon. The rest of us I think are still in shock to some degree and just taking it all in and processing it at our own pace.

Your continued prayers are what we need most and mean so very much to all of us.

Blessings to you all!