In Limbo

Hello Everyone-

We've been caught in a dance of yes surgery, no surgery, yes radiation, no radiation.  Which is very frustrating for us, so not hearing a solid plan we didn't want to just push ahead and update until all of the options had been weighed and researched.

We saw Dr. Chawla after the radiation appointments he talked with ALL doctors, Moms urologist, radiologist, and surgeon all spoke with Chawla. The plan for the time being is he told us to do more chemotherapy for three more rounds to see if this medication mix of GAT (gemcitabine, adriamycin, and taxotere) could do more good. Until the next set of scans it's the same song and dance of chemo, mom feeling extremely tired after part a is administered  on day 2 and 3, 4, coming back to her self day 5 and 6 than part b of the medication and the week starts over again. I see her getting very tired, and frustrated with her body not being at 100%. But the constant prayers and warm positive energy sent her way keeps her going, so thank you so very much.

Love-  

Radiation Consults

Hello All-

We were sent to radiation after all these surgery consults were pointing to that direction. Surgery was put on hold to see what the radiation specialists had to say. We saw two Radiology Oncologist. One was a doctor in our town (Dr. Washington), who for being a small town were blessed with a big city credential doctor right under our noses, it was a blessing. The other doctor (Dr. Koka) we saw was a recommendation of Dr. Chawla. Both doctors had the same response, and their response is as follows...

Due to the location of Mama Pham's tumor that tricky bugger is near all these sensitive areas. SO the conversation becomes a matter of quality of life or quantity of life. Because of where the mass sits right in front of the ureter and near the ever moving bowels, there is no guarantee of a "direct clean" shot of radiation to the mass without hitting surrounding organs both radiologist said the same thing. The way they explained radiation there is a beam that is shot at that location with guided markers put in surgically before you begin radiation, and you can see it on the x-ray type machine while you radiate the mass. The level you need to reach in order to kill the sarcoma soft tissue is at a 64.  The ureter and bowels however can handle at the highest a 45. IF they are exposed to a stronger dose they become damaged, grow scar tissue, and more dangerously create holes in the organs. The holes can lead to permanent colostomy and nephrostromy bag, the scarier part is it could not have any symptoms and there could be a leak, that causes all other organs to shut down from the bacteria in the system. Both radiologist recommend we have surgery to remove that one leftover spot. So we left both appointments completely and utterly confused. It is back to the drawing board, and a follow up with our ships captain Dr. Chawla. 

We will update soon-