I Have Good News and Good News (and More Waiting)

Dad had another round of chemotherapy today, had a CT of just his pancreas. We took the disc from the CT to Dr. Kuhn, the surgeon. He told Dr. Nemunaitis that he won't perform surgery until he reviews the CT and has probably has another endoscopic ultrasound of the pancreas to make sure he knows what he's dealing with before he goes in. He is hoping (and we are hopeful) that he can remove it all, but he is extremely thorough. This is good, thorough is very good! If he cannot remove it all, we are hoping for surgical intervention ASAP anyway. What we are praying is that he will remove everything possible and ablate (or burn) the remaining cancer with alcohol, freeze it or radiate it with the "cryo-knife" (oooooh, impressive name-it's really just very directed radiation). We are then on the road to the G-Vax and Genomic Characterization therapies (see earlier post from February). We are meeting with Dr. Kuhn tomorrow at around 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. We had the privilege of talking with David Shanahan, President of Mary Crowley Research Center. He talked at length about the vision of managing the patient's care now, not just gathering numbers for the FDA. Their passion is the patients they are treating, not a singular breakthrough that may, or may not occur. He sees their role as a series of "nudges" that will make a significant impact on the overal treatment for cancer. While it is every researchers dream to have the big breakthrough and find the cure, they don't lose focus on the patients they are treating now. They seek out medical trials that are tailored to their current patient roster and with an eye toward what they need after they complete their current treatment. He is a wonderful man of God, very open with his faith and trusting God to provide for this amazing facility. What a privilege to be in the hands of a group of people who are so full of faith and willing to go way outside the box of traditional treatments when necessary. Pray that God will bless them with finances and His mind to see their way through to a miraculous treatment for this debilitating disease. Dad is feeling good, his spirits are up, and I had to run to keep up with him when we were walking down the halls of Baylor today (all good signs). We'll let you know more tomorrow or Friday.