All The Options

Lots of people have called me lately concerned that without surgery Jon might be running out of options. Never to worry, we have been busily researching in preparation of the next stage of this journey. Surgery is certainly still an option, but we won't know more until the CT scan on the 13th. Although Dr. Hart was pessimistic about the large tumor next to the Vena Cava he did say that Jon had enough good liver left on the left lobe to do the procedure if that particular tumor had shrunk. Jon does have a few small tumors in his left lobe that the surgeon would ablate with the radiofrequency. It is a major surgery with a long and difficult recovery so its not necessarily our favorite choice but could certainly offers the best hope of a complete cure. Jon likes to say that the whole thing is like "having a rattlesnake in your sleeping bag." He cracks me up with his metaphors.

Dr Chue has presented several more options. Radioactive "seeds" placed directly in Jon's liver to kill the local cancer without affecting the rest of his body. There is also chemo that can be delivered directly into the liver through the large artery in your leg. It sounds fairly unpleasant and would require a week in the hospital in a body cast so you can't move. Somehow I just don't see Jon going for that one! It also has not had particularly great outcomes. On our last appointment Dr. Chue told us about a new medication called Lenalidomide that has been successful in treating Multiple Myeloma (a form of blood cancer) This drug increases your natural killer cells and kills the blood vessels to the tumor. It is a derivative of Thalidamide that was used in the 50s to treat women with morning sickness. Thalidamide had the unfortunate side effect of children being born without limbs because it restricted the blood flow to the fetus (also rapidly dividing cells like cancer-sorry for the disgusting comparison). This would be given in pill forms so Jon wouldn't have to have chemo pumped into him every week. The side effects seem pretty minimal compared to what we've been dealing with.

Last of all we continue with the naturopathic methods that have been successful thus far. We take classes, read books and consult every expert we can find in the area. Our friend, Bill Hutton, who lost his son Paul to testicular cancer in October, has also provided us with more diet and nutritional information this week that we will incorporate into our program.

I continue to be amazed at how Jon bounces back after these chemos. Last weekend I would have thought the guy was near death and today he is hunting coyotes with Dave Bartran. He expects to feel well enought to lift weights tomorrow. If he does have surgery, he wants to be in the best shape possible going in.