Josh had the PET scan yesterday and we got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the chemo seems to have shrunk the tumors in Josh’s abdomen. The masses that were there are smaller or not there at all. Some areas are clear, and some still have traces of cancer. The bad news is that the scan showed that a few of Josh’s lymph nodes in his chest are positive for cancer. The cancer in the lymph nodes came up very faintly on the scan, and may not have shown up on a CT scan. So, it looks like that Barium in his colon may have been a blessing in disguise.
Seeing the cancer in the lymph nodes is an indicator of the status of surgery. It looks like that surgery won’t be anytime soon. The trip to DC for this weekend along with the surgery in July will be cancelled. Josh’s oncologist is going to speak with Dr. Sugarbaker to discuss the findings and hopefully set up a new game plan.
The plan for now is that Josh will stay at Health South for about another week. This will hopefully strengthen him more, so that he can have some more chemotherapy. The exact plans for chemo are not set out yet, we should find out more in the next week.
I know it is difficult to tell if what you just read should make you happy or sad. I’ve been struggling with that, too. But I ultimately think things are headed in the positive direction. The cancer responded to chemo, and shrunk significantly. We now pray that that continues. Josh can now focus on strengthening his body, and hopefully add some of that bulk that we were all used to seeing.
We’ve all been praying for the best outcome for Josh, and think that this is one step in that direction (even if we don’t really understand it).
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