Jon drug me out of bed this morning at 4am to give him his antibiotics so he could leave for duckhunting at 5 am with his buddy, Rex. Someday I will get him for all of these antics, my sleep is already screwed up for all the sleepless nights at the hospital!! He's been gone all day and called saying he actually feels good today. His stomach is still huge and the doctors all say the only way to address the ascites permanently is to treat the liver and they can't treat the liver until they are sure the bleeding has stopped. So far so good with no additional signs of bleeding. He has a blood draw tomorrow (if he can squeeze it in around duck hunting) to check his hemoglobin and hematocrit and if it all looks good we will proceed with chemotherapy on Tuesday. We've been discussing whether of not it might be better to do chemo every other week or when we should consider trying the Y90 in the liver. We will talk to Dr. Chen about all of it on Tuesday. I did make Jon and appointment with the GI specialist from the hospital but the couldn't get him in until the end of January. He is on a cancellation list so we might get in sooner. He would be the doctor who would be most qualified to locate the source of the bleeding should it continue.

I found a doctor in Virginia who has already completed a Phase II study on metastatic liver cancer with Photodynamic Therapy. It was for cancer that originated in the gall bladder, esophagus, and liver so I don't know if he would be willing to do Jon or if our insurance would pay for it but it's worth some investigation. I also have calls into Swedish and Virginia Mason in Seattle who have done some PDT in the lungs and liver but again, I don't know if they would treat Jon. Apparently it has been done for years in Europe so we always have the option to travel but that might be too difficult for Jon so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the local studies will be completed by spring and he can have it locally.