Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Excellent day and STABLE!!!

Matt had a slew of appointments today. First an MRI, then a visit with Neurosurgery, then a visit with Oncology. It was wonderful to learn early in the day that the tumor is STABLE!! Gone would be perfect, but stable is excellent - and about as good as it gets for us! Dr.Walker is not recommending surgery at the moment. He also said he would try to hold off on radiation.

We celebrated our good news with a visit to PF Changs for lunch in between appointments. I joked that if we had received bad news, we would have eaten our lunch in the hospital cafeteria! :-)

After lunch Matt had an appointment with Oncology, where he hadn't been in almost 7 months............BAD MOMMY! We got all up to speed with them. They are also recommending we hold off on any treatment as the tumor remains stable. Matt will be having his Broviac removed sometime very soon - like this week! I feel sort of giddy and surreal that we so unexpectedly received this gift of Matt's cancer stabilizing. One day, we were plugging along, fighting this thing with chemotherapy, and talks of radiation and a 4th craniotomy, and now, suddenly, it's stable and we are cautiously going to get on with our lives. It's a very strange feeling! I know that things can and probably will change in an instant, but for now, we will enjoy what we've got!

Surprisingly, all of the doctors we met with were very much in favor of Matt having the surgery to treat his hypothalamic obesity. As I was explaining the surgery to Dr.Walker and we discussed the issues Matt's facing, I mentioned that the surgeon wasn't sure Matt should have the surgery because most of the kids are so much bigger than Matt. He echoed my exact sentiments when he said, "why would you let it get that bad if you had a treatment that you thought might work??" Exactly. Also, both Dr.Walker and Dr.Lemons had heard of Dr.Lustig and thought him to be on the forefront of obesity research and very well-respected in the medical community. This was so reassuring! I have worried and wondered what *other* doctor's thought of Dr.Lustig. Just because a doctor is well published and presents at a lot of conferences doesn't automatically make him a doctor I want performing experimental procedures on my son! It sounds like that's not the case with Dr.Lustig, though. Both of our local doctors felt confident that we were seeing the right doctor for Matt.

8 comments:

Katie said...

Hooray! I'm so happy for the excellent news!

When do they want to schedule Matt's surgery?

EmilyCC said...

What wonderful news! (And, what a nice summer treat not to have to worry about the Broviac!)

Dina said...

Excellent news! So happy for you all!

Jessie said...

SO COOL! I'm happy for you guys - wonderful news!

Katie said...

Yay! Stable! What good news just in time for baby to come!

Tara Bergsjo said...

I can't imagine the relief you are feeling right now. Now you will be able to enjoy this new baby and not worry as much. I am so happy that everything went well!!!

The Uffens Family said...

We're so happy for your latest update! Now to just worry about those sleepless nights for that little girl!! We sure get enough of those sleepless nights as parents, don't we?

Chan said...

Hey Alli, it Chandra Richey Brewer from Layton High. I found your blog through Meg's and just wanted to stay you are an amazing mom. Wow! My husband had a brain anuerism so I can relate to the surgery part but what a difference with it being a child. I can't imagine. Good luck and thank your lucky stars for the good days!