Disappointing News

We got a call back from the doctor today, Nathan won’t be going in for surgery like we thought. While this is disappointing news, the surgeon believes that with two more cycles of chemo Nathan’s tumor will be even smaller and hopefully pull away from the vein that brings blood up from his lower half. The oncologist explained that in order for the surgery to be as safe as possible and to get as much of the tumor as possible the surgeon would like to get clear margins around the tumor.

After two more cycles the surgery will happen, so we are looking at the end of June or the beginning of July. When I asked if that could possibly be put off she said no. With the rate at which Nathan’s tumor is dying even if it’s not pulled away from the vein to give clear margins of healthy tissue, the tissue around it is completely dead and non viable.

In addition she told me that based on his cat scans and blood work there is no other cancer, aside from the hepatoblastoma, anywhere in his body. So once the tumor is out, he’ll be cancer free. We’ve been very fortunate, he has responded very well to the medicine, the AFP markers have gone from 37,000 to 3,400 to 380 which is roughly a factor of 10 each time. The tumor has shrunk from 105mm to 65mm and the tissue around it is completely dead, while I think we’d all prefer not to think about this stuff as lucky…I think we are.