Off To See The Wizard

Once again, time and life got the better of me and I've neglected to update our blog for almost two months! Today marks Nate's 11th treatment, and his 6th treatment of Vectibix (biological agent). He had a CT scan on October 16 to see if the Vectibix was making a difference, and to help us decide on timing for surgery in Boston. Thankfully, all of the tumors showed no growth since the last scan in late August. Ideally, we would've liked to see the tumors shrinking, but we will take "no growth" anyday! This is the first time that there's been no growth in visible tumors on the scans since late 2012, so we consider this good news! Since the tumors were still the same size, Nate's oncologist and Dr. Lambert recommended surgery as soon as possible to take advantage of the "no growth" window.

It took a few weeks to get surgery scheduled because we had to work with three different surgeons' schedules. Along with Dr. Lambert, there will be a colo-rectal surgeon, and a liver transplant surgeon (in case they need to resect some of Nate's liver). We both appreciate Dr. Lambert consulting with these other surgeons, and we absolutely trust her judgment. We're always glad to have any specialist on the case, so having three specialists in on the surgery is great! The goal of the surgery is to remove as much tumor and mucin as possible from the peritoneal cavity, which could include removing more bowel and portions of other organs. If they're able to remove all visible disease, Dr. Lambert will consider doing the HIPEC (shake-n-bake) treatment again, and will have it on stand-by in the O.R. While she doesn't think this is very probable, we know that miracles happen!

Nate is scheduled for surgery on November 12, with pre-op appointments on the 10th. We fly to Boston this Sunday, November 9, and have been told to expect to be there for a month. They estimate 10-14 days in the hospital and about two weeks before they'll give travel clearance. You all know what an optimist Nate is, and he's shooting for three weeks. I'm planning on a month because I'd rather be pleasantly surprised, but this is one bet I'd be happy to lose!

It's hard to believe we're doing this again, and it's killing us to leave our kids. We're not looking forward to spending Thanksgiving away from them! Fortunately, my parents are able to come from Idaho to stay with them at our house. Last time, we left during the summer and the kids didn't really have anything going on so they went up to Idaho for the 6 weeks we were gone. Now that they're in school, two years older, and they're running in every direction, having my parents come here to stay is a huge blessing. We don't want to disrupt their lives any more than we have to so we're very grateful that they can stay home and get spoiled by their grandparents. They can't wait for Grammy and Papa to get here!

Nate and I will stay at the Hope Lodge in Worcester, Massachusetts. This is another huge blessing. The Hope Lodge provides lodging, free of charge, to cancer patients and their caregiver. We stayed there during Nate's 2012 surgeries. It's a beautiful old Victorian mansion and it's only three miles from UMASS Hospital. It's nice to know we're going back to a familiar place and we don't have to figure things out all over again!

Nate's mom and my sister are once again flying out to be with us during the surgery and for a few days following. I'm hoping this surgery won't be 14 hours long like the other one was, but I'm so thankful that I'll have such good company again in the waiting room. Those waiting hours seem to tick by in a Twilight Zone fashion.

Since surgery was booked, Nate stopped receiving the chemical agents (the actual chemo) after his 9th round to prepare for surgery. This allows his body to get rid of the chemicals that can hinder tissue recovery, gain strength, and just have a break. He's still receiving the Vectibix infusion every two weeks (the biological agent doesn't compromise tissue), and the side effects have been pretty nasty. It causes a pretty severe skin rash, like teenage acne, that's supposed to peak at 6 weeks after treatment begins, level off, then become pretty mild for the remainder of the treatment. Unfortunately, Nate's peaked after 10 days, hasn't really leveled off, and certainly hasn't gotten any better. He received his 6th treatment today, and if it proves effective, he could stay on it forever. I'm praying that Nate gets some relief from the skin rash soon because I don't want him to have to deal with his recovery AND the rash. Grateful that it seems to be keeping the tumors from growing, but a little reprieve would be so nice!

Since I'll have some down time in Massachusetts, I'm planning to update the blog often for those of you that want to check on Nate. Please don't hesitate to call, text, email, FB, whatever, if you have any questions, a good joke, or any words of encouragement! We get a little stir crazy staring at hospital walls for weeks on end. Thanks again for the love we feel from so many of you! We are BLESSED!