04/19/07, 02:43 PM
|
 |
More dharma, less drama.
|
|
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
|
|
|
Cole's update - April 19, 2007
April 19, 2007 at 02:10 PM CDT
Where we were, where we are.
As most of you know, we have just finished another round of chemo. Before this last treatment started, Cole had another bone marrow biopsy, and followed that up with an MIBG scan (that looks for neuroblastoma cells). I am going to keep you in suspense on the results for just a minute, and go over where we have been, so the results have more meaning.
When we came to St. Jude in mid-December, Cole’s cancer consisted of a large tumor in his abdomen and his bone marrow was more than 70% diseased. He did an experimental treatment for a month, and responded really well to it. That treatment reduced the size of his tumor by 50% and cut the level of disease in his bone marrow to less than 1%. Cole’s response to the experimental treatment was so good that he was able to have his surgery scheduled to have his tumor removed. We did one round of high dose chemo before surgery, and then the tumor came out Feb 13th. The surgeons felt that they had gotten virtually all of the tumor, and termed it “very successful”. After 2 weeks of recovery, Cole was back into chemo, and we have completed 3 rounds since then.
Cole’s 9 rounds of high dose chemo are scheduled in 3 blocks. After the first block (that we finished earlier this month) they complete a set of tests to make sure that each child is responding to the therapy, or if they need to try something different. Today, we got Cole’s results from these tests. His bone marrow biopsy showed no sign of cancer cells. His MIBG scan also showed no sign of disease. They said that there is a “little bit of an uptake around his kidney” meaning that the MIBG showed a little glow in that area, but that is common because that is where the radioactive contrast is filtered out of the body. Even if there are still just a few cancer cells there, the results at this stage in therapy are very positive.
Now, we go on. We still have 5 more rounds of high dose chemo to complete, followed by bone marrow transplant, followed by radiation therapy. This type of cancer is like the evil monster in a horror movie, when you think he is dead, that is when he can come back to life. Don’t you always wonder why the guys in those movies don’t put a few extra rounds into the monster when they have him down? Well, that is what we are going to do. That way we can know that once the cancer is gone, it’s won’t come back. We are not close to the end of this road, but the signs are looking good.
Please continue to pray for Cole. We will be looking to do his stem cell harvest in the next few weeks, and the next round of chemo is a really tough one. He is doing great though, his weight is up to 13.2 kilos (29 pounds), and he feels good. Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts.
Nathan and Wendy.
|
