The update from Tuesday and fever strikes again

Hi guys! It's Amy doing this update. Sorry for the delay - it's been a typically busy week. Unfortunately, it got even more busy for us Thursday night when we had to go back to the hospital in Miami because Scott had been running a fever all day. We're still here, but he's okay. His fever broke shortly after getting here late Thursday night, but they are doing the same drill as last time - monitoring blood cultures to make sure there are no signs of infection and pumping him full of antibiotics. Fever is a real critical issue for chemotherapy patients and no one is taking any chances. Right now the plan is to go home tomorrow and Scott is counting down the hours. The silver lining is the room he's in - it looks like a hotel room! Seriously, it's huge, there's wood floors, a sleeper sofa, a new flat screen TV and beautiful granite countertops. It's just luck we got this room. We came to Sylvester to be admitted, and they started construction on the inpatient rooms on the 2nd floor (where Scott was on Monday night). They had us come up to the 4th floor, where they had just finished construction on rooms that are intended for bone marrow transplant patients. At least being in these nice rooms eases his frustration over being here just a little bit. (He's still not a happy camper!)

As for the update regarding surgery or radiation, it looks like radiation is what's going to happen. There's several reasons why they are recommending radiation. His tumor is located very close to the Sacrum (shown below) and very close to some critical nerves - in particular, ones that are important for bowel and bladder functions. If they surgically remove the tumor, they basically have to "graft" bone back in it's place and the location makes it harder for the surgereon to have something to graft to. Plus, when they remove it, they have to remove the tumor with enough "clean" (cancer-free) margins on either side. The location makes this harder. Another issue is his recovery - the surgical procedure for this will make recovery difficult. His doctor said surgery would be harder on him than radiation.

Here's a picture of the APPROXIMATE location of his tumor. Y'all know i'm not a doctor and we can't understand where it is very well from the images they show us, but this is about where it is.

As for the when, where and how about radiation, we don't know much yet. Dr. Adams will be meeting with other doctors next week to determine the plan. (It's actually a weekly "conference" they have.) Since Scott is just so special and unique :) a panel of doctors are going to review his chart and assist in making some decisions about which of the many methods of radiation they will be giving him. Several factors are up in the air, like how often, whether they'll do it soon or after chemo, and very importantly, how they are going to protect his bladder and bowel (which will be in the way). We should hear more about that towards the end of next week and will probably get an appointment to meet with the radiologist directly. We'll keep you posted.

Also, it turns out that the tumor has actually shrunk very little, but Dr. Adams is still very encouraged because of the new bone growth. The significant decrease in his pain may be just due to a decrease in inflammation around the tumor, but it's still a good sign. The way Dr. Adams put it is that when we first saw her, the tumor and bone were fighting for space and the tumor was winning - now bone is winning. :) She hasn't seem him in several months and was very pleased about how good he looks and how well he is moving and getting around.

We hope everyone is having a great weekend and we send our love to all of you.

~Amy