Update on the Lung and Liver

I had a third CT scan last Thursday 2/26. The doctor wanted to check on both lung and liver, but mostly the liver status. Great news is that the lung tumor is almost
gone..."blasted to smitherings" I believe the oncologist said. There is no
tumor in the middle the preexisting tumor, only a bit of the tumor hanging off
the periphery. A definite success from the chemo he was using.

The not so good news from the scan is that the liver tumors are more and
some are larger that we initially saw in 10/08. There was some question
about this in the January scan but this was confirmed in Februray. So Gary
and I had a consult w/a new interventional radiologist today at St
Vincent's hospital. He explained the best procedure that is out there, which
that we will pursue. He will perform an angiogram within the week to make
sure all veins and pathways into the liver are open. Then he will close down
some pathways via cauterization, like between the liver and stomach and
liver and pancreas. Then about 10 days later he will perform a procedure
whereby he will insert radioactive beads directly into the liver via my
blood stream. These beads will be specific to kill the liver tumors and
will be effective for about 2 weeks. Rather painless to me I'm told.
He will repeat this bead insertion about 6 times every 2 weeks. We will
also be looking at new liver directed chemo at some point....not sure when
yet.

Both Gary and I feel good that we are now centering on the liver as we've
always known this would be the major organ to "attack" and the one with much
more cancer in it from the beginning. So our journey takes a turn that was
somewhat expected and in our minds will keep us going down the path of
healing. We are encouraged by the near death of the lung tumor and hope
the liver follows suit. This radioactive procedure has very high success
in reducing tumor size. And no I won't glow in the dark...at least no more
than normal.

Again, we appreciate all of your support, love, listening ears, support of
my children, wonderful meals and endless acts of kindness. Without you we couldn't be
as strong as we have been. Thank you. We are OK and marching forward...more smacking
ahead of us.