Sunday, February 27, 2011

Andrew Peterson - Dancing in the Minefields (Official Video)

Be sure to scroll to the very bottom of the blog page to pause the music player before playing the video.



Saturday, February 26, 2011

Blood draws and meeting Dr. Meyers

Tuesday, February 22, we met again with Dr. Kotsanis for more blood draws/lab stuff and then that afternoon we met Dr. Meyers, the Ear/Nose/Throat dr. We really like them both.

The mornings appointment was mostly lab stuff.. Dr. Kotsanis's office set up an appointment for Thursday (one week from today, March 3.) a port placement surgery..this will be a day surgery. I'm not sure of the doctors name, yet, who will be performing this, but it is pretty standard, this doctor performs these daily. It's a small procedure. The port will is similar to the Picc line that Derek has had previously. He will receive intravenous treatments through the port. Nurses have such a difficult time locating Derek's veins, so this will be the best solution, not to have to dig around weekly to begin IV's. We will not have the German test back, in order to know what chemo to begin, so for now, they will begin other treatments, such as high dose vitamin c through the port. This Dr. Kotsanis is a mover.. we will begin treatments ASAP!! We discussed another PET scan, to have a baseline as to where we are beginning.. again;) Derek is due one, it's been a little over 3 months since our last one in October. So we will be traveling to Oklahoma City for that ASAP:)

Next, we met Dr. Meyers for the first time, and we really like him. He is friendly and warm..very different from most of our doctors:) He is alos considered THE GUY for the parotid gland. He looked Derek over and asked a series of questions. After examining Derek and asking his questions, he explained to us that 1. All the 'red flags' that he would look for that would point to the tumor in Derek's neck as being malignant where not there! (WHEW!), however, Derek does have a rather large malignancy in his leg, so we need to be sure. 2.) He isn't going to go in there and remove it with out knowing what it is. SO.... we need a PET Scan.

All of Derek's previous scans have been from the neck down, I beleive. I know in the past they have looked at this lungs, spleen, and various other organs where liposarcomas like to travel. Up to this point all of those areas have been clean, and we are not expecting anything other than clean scans this go around with the exception of Derek's leg, obviously. This scan however, will include Derek's head in order to look at the tumor growing on the parotid gland. We are praying for that tumor to be benign. We are trying to scedule that scan for this coming Tuesday, March 1.

I will update more as I have information. So for now...

Please agree with us in prayer:

1. We are able to get into the Pet scan on Tuesday.

2. A good plan for the kids and traveling, etc.

3. THAT THE TUMOR GROWING ON THE PAROTID GLAND BE BENIGN!!! ***

4. Easy day surgery on Thursday for Derek.

5. Traveling mercies.. if all this falls into place right, we will be traveling to OKC Monday evening and back home Tuesday evening, then traveling to Grapevine Wednesday evening and back home Thursday after the procedure. (Shuffling kids during the process)

6. That they have a successful testing of Derek's blood in Germany #1. that they are able to harvest tumor cells from his blood and #2 that they are able to find an effective treatment.

Thank you~God bless,
Misty:)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Update/Prayer requests

**This is actually a post I made on Facebook last week, we have now been to both of these appointments and I will update soon for those:)**

Whoa.. I don't know where to begin.. we met Dr. Kotsanis this past Wednesday, and there is so much information that we received. For now, I will just try to hit the most important things that are happening right now..and maybe fill in the blanks as we go w/details and such. First thing, I suppose.. Derek had blood draws and some lab work that we could here, in Sherman yesterday. We go back to Dr. Kotsanis this Tuesday for more labs, blood draws, etc. One of the draws that day, will be sent to a lab in Germany. The lab there will harvest cancer cells from the blood, grow them in about 40 different petri dishes, then inject each with different chemo agents, as well as, the top alternative treatments in order to find which treatment is most effective agains Derek's particular cancer. (I will have better detailed information concerning this after Tuesday.) I had a question concerning this..I wasn't so sure that I wanted cancer cells to be found in Derek's blood. However, this test is extrememly EXPENSIVE and is NOT covered by insurance.. WE REALLY WANT TO FIND A TREATMENT THAT IS EFFECTIVE! So.. please be in prayer that they are able to find those "markers" or whatever, so that they can find an effective treatment. We were told that this test takes anywhere from two to three and a half weeks, in the meantime, Dr. Kotsanis told us that we will not just be sitting here, waiting.. we would begin a treatment plan. On Tuesday, we will also be meeting with an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor, Dr. Meyers at UT Southwestern. He is supposed to be one of the best of the best. His area of expertise is the parotid gland (this is the gland, which the tumor in Derek's neck is growing). Dr. Kotsanis did say that at this time, it is his belief that the tumor is benign. He felt 90% sure.. we will go with that. I will update more about this, as we find out information, but at this time..that is all we have.

With all that being said, here are our specific prayer requests at this time:

1. That the tumor in Derek's neck is benign.

2. That they are able to find those "markers" or cells needed to grow Derek's tumor in petri dishes.

3. That once they harvest those and grow them..that the tumor does respond to a treatment.

**successful testing***

4. My kids. Everyone is really anxious around here and we are leaving them a lot with family and friends, and will be for a while. It's tough. I know a lot of kids have been through much worse, but it's still tough.

5. Finances, we will be going back and forth to Grapevine for a while, and whatever insurance doesn't cover comes out of pocket.. it gets expensive, but I know that God provides.

6. Wisdom for the doctors.



God bless,

Misty