What a Roller Coaster!

We have really been through some ups and downs this week!  I guess that is the nature of the beast though.  After the news we got on Monday we were gearing up for a trip back east for surgery.  I was a little nervous about being out there alone with Trent.  What if things didn't end well and I was left alone out there to take care of everything?  What if our kids didn't get to see Trent one last time?   If everything went great, how was the 2 1/2 day train ride home going to be?  Ugh.  'What ifs' are a bummer. 

We went to McKay Dee on Wednesday to get the cardiac MRI that the PA doctors wanted.  No cancer in his heart.  They didn't even have to use the contrast for the last half of the MRI because it was so clear that there was no cancer invading the heart.  I am not sure if it is on the pericardium though, I have not read the final report yet. 

Thursday we headed down to Huntsman bright and early to have a PET scan.  As soon as I left Trent at radiology I went down the hall to take care of a couple of things when I got a call from Trent.  I forgot to tell him to fast before the test!  Oh snap!  The girl who set up the appointment told me not to let him eat after midnight and I totally forgot!  Stink!  We had to go home and try again on Friday.  That meant we got to be there for the grand opening of the new wing at Huntsman.  I stood on the third floor and watched out the front windows while they did the whole ceremony.  I had really mixed feelings about it.  Yes, it is nice and beautiful but I did not want to see it.  I had hoped we would be through with treatment by the time it opened. 

Anyway, Trent had his scan done at 8:00 am and we left around 10:30 to get him some food when he was done.  We had just gotten his precious #14 Bootlegger Club from Jimmy Johns when Trent got a call from the Radiology department at Huntsman.  He had to redo the whole scan (which takes two hours) because they had a computer malfunction.  Aack!  Poor guy!  He had just opened his sandwich to eat!  So we headed right back up to start all over.  Thankfully the results were awesome!  No cancer anywhere except the left lung! 

Earlier in the week we heard from Katie who said that Dr. Karwande had received Trent's scan from when he was in the ICU and he said he could do the surgery!  That put a whole new set of options on the table for us.  So after the scans on Friday we headed over to talk to Dr. Karwande.  He had heard the results of the cardiac MRI and we told him the results of the PET scan.  But before he even knew those he was fully confident he could do the surgery.  He made us feel so good about everything.  We kept bringing up worries about what would take place during the surgery and his reaction was, "Why are you worrying about that?  That is my job.  Let me worry about that and you worry about getting better."  He told us that he would notch out each part of the lung that had cancer in it while preserving as much as he could.  I asked him about the cancer possibly coming back again.  He replied, "If it comes back, we will just do another surgery."  I wondered how many times that could happen and he said that he had done surgery six times on one lung before.  At least this is not our last shot.  The doctor from earlier this week made us feel like Trent had one shot and one shot only.  Dr. Karwande does not think that at all.  While it is still very critical that he have surgery right away, we still have options for down the road. 

Dr. Karwande does not think he will have to remove the entire lung but possibly the lower left lobe.  He will make that determination during surgery.  This time Trent will have a thoracotomy, meaning they will go in under his arm and go in between his ribs.  It is a more painful surgery to recover from so we are a little apprehensive about that.  The last surgery was no walk in the park.  I told him we had seen a radiologist for possible treatment and he did not think that was a good idea.  One thing he said was, "Surgery is benign."  I loved the sound of that. If we can get rid of the cancer with surgery that is the best chance for survival.  The tumors will be sent to the lab in Arizona again for molecular testing.  Then, if Dr. Gouw deems it appropriate, we may do a little chemotherapy to make sure everything is gone for good.   We set up a surgery date for Wednesday morning.  That is the day Trent's case was supposed to be discussed in PA.  We decided that we can change the surgery date if we need to but would feel it out over the weekend.  We have been fasting and praying and we are both at peace.  The logistics make more sense and we feel very confident in Dr. Karwande's abilities.  We will be fasting and praying for Dr. Karwande, his surgical support team, and Trent on Wednesday.  It will be another very big day for us to say the least.  After a 5-7 day hospital stay it will take about 6-8 weeks to fully recover from this surgery.  Hopefully we will have Trent feeling pretty good by Christmas!