Back from the tests and the doctor's office. The CT scans show that the chemotherapy has made major reduction in the affected lymph nodes and prostate which is evidenced by my greatly reduced symptoms. This is really good news. My urological oncologist, Dr. Seth Strope, is a surgeon, but is taking a very studied and cautious approach to my treatment keeping my quality of life as the major goal. According to Dr. Strope, there are issues that make a surgical solution less viable than originally thought. Specifically, my mesenteric lymph nodes that feed into my bowels are still swollen and are not candidates for either surgical removal or radiation due to their proximity to the bowels. Also, any disease may also be transmitted to the bowels which would lessen the chance to create an iliostomy using bowel tissue as reconstructive surgery.
Dr. Strope will speak with the radiologist to make sure they both clearly understand the CT scan results and then may take those results to the Tumor Board at Barnes for a full team review prior to making a recommendation to us. He also wants to talk with Dr. Picus, my medical oncologist. The sense of our discussion is that we are leaning towards another round of chemotherapy rather than a surgical solution since it would not get all of the cancerous tissue in any case.
Dr. Picus has tentatively scheduled a fourth round of chemo starting January 8th and lasting 3 weeks. He indicated that this will continue the reduction of the lymph nodes, but will not result in a cure. Both he and Dr. Strope seem convinced that we will not cure this cancer, but fight it again in a year with more treatments. We will also need to watch for any new symptoms not related to the bladder or urinary tract to detect movement to other organs. Again, this is not what we signed up for.
We know God is in control, though and are relying on His plan to be the best one. In the mean time, we will be celebrating the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ and the coming new year with family and friends and without fear, but with joy and thankfulness for God's promises and faithfulness in our lives.
By the way, I have created a blog site that will be where I will continue to share my thoughts and such once we abandon Caring Bridge.org. In the mean time, I'll duplicate my journal entries there. The url is: JScroggins-Blog.blogspot.com if you are interested.
On the bicycle front, we got a call from the Alton Police Department today and will be taking in about 20 new bikes the first week in January that are supposed to be in good to excellent shape. Thanks Alton PD. Also, more used bikes keep appearing in the hall outside our room at the Hope Center. Crazy, isn't it?
May each of you have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and new year.
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