Swallow

Well today was scan day.  We took Mallory with us so she could stay with Olivia.  That was a nightmare.  She threw up twice in the car on the way down and then all over the parking garage.  Traveling with that girl is not the most fun.  Trent had his scan done while Mallory and I cleaned up herself and the car.  After that we waited.  As the minutes ticked by I got more and more nervous.  By the time we finally went to see Dr. Gouw I had used the bathroom three times.  I am not sure how much of that was nerves vs. the orange juice I had for breakfast!  To say the least I was anxious.  Trent had not slept much the night before because he was so nervous.  He had confided that he did not think the chemo worked because he can feel the tumor in his back.

Well, he was right.  The tumor has continued to grow, albeit slowly.  It is now the size of a golf ball, which explains why he can feel it in his back.  Dr. Gouw was not too concerned about the size.  He said we have at least six months, maybe up to a year before it would start to impair heart function.  I guess that is good news.  Because the tumor did not respond to the chemo we are changing agents.  The results from the lab in Arizona indicated that this tumor should respond to Doxorubicin and Cisplatin.  These are both agents we have used before and not had good results.  We are also adding a third agent, Temodar.  It is commonly used to treat melanoma, but the lab results also indicated it should be effective on Trent's tumor.  So, Dr. Gouw is wrapping them up in slightly different packaging from what we have seen before and we are going to go with it.  The new regiment will go like this.  Three days of infusion then 18 days off with labs being done every four days to track how far Trent's counts-especially platelets-are going to fall.  Today he had liposomal doxorubicin which is a 90 minute infusion, Cisplatin which is a 60 minute infusion, three hours of hydration, and Temodar in the form of two horse pills.  Tomorrow and Friday he will only get the Cisplatin and Temodar.  Tomorrow Trent will also have an echocardiogram to make sure we have a baseline to measure from for the Doxorubicin which can potentially damage his heart.  This was a lot to swallow.  But we did it.  Trent even gathered us all in for "Go Team" before we left the exam room-which was a first for our doctor and nurses.  What a goof.  We are not defeated, just delayed.

We quickly went out to say goodbye to Mallory who was waiting with Jill, Olivia, and Claire.  When we shared the news I was fine.  By the time I had walked them down to their van I was swallowing.  A lot.  There is nothing to do but swallow that news and move on.  After the girls left I sat on a bench in the lobby, put my head in my hands and prayed.  I prayed for patience, endurance, a good attitude, strength, and of course success.  I watered my toes pretty good with my tears as I sat there for about five minutes.  After swallowing several more times I was pretty sure I could put on a happy face.  When I got back to Trent in infusion, he was disappointed but determined.

We talked to Kelsie, who works there with a different doctor who treats GI cancers.  She told us he uses the experimental lab in 100% of his patients and swears by the information he gets from them.  That gave us both a lot of comfort.  We are anxious and optimistic and eager to see what this next regiment can do for us.  We are hoping that the side effects are minimal and that Trent will tolerate it well.  We will scan in six weeks and see what the next step will be.  Surgery is probably in the future but right now we are aiming for a decrease in size or at least no change.  Baby steps and a lot of swallowing.