Hey Guys and Gals.....got an update from Karen so I thought I would post......
Please keep this thread rockin' and rollin' as it really helps Bret when he's only able to just read.....
Don't forget the prayers.......Art, you got a better connection to the Big Guy than any of us other heathens.....as always....put in a special word...
Hi All:
Bret had a percutaneous liver biopsy last Thursday Feb 5 and a plain CT of abdomen. He’s been eating small meals, hurting, and miserably nauseous and sick; made another GP visit Friday morning and she put him on Zofran.
Had oncology appt Mon Feb 9. The pathologist confirmed that tumor is melanoma, but didn’t get good enough sample to do genetic testing. (55% of melanoma is BRAF, and there are 2 new targeted drugs that inhibit the BRAF protein – Tafinlar and Zelboraf. Other 45% are hodgepodge genetics, other options might be immunotherapy drugs like Yervoy. Personal favorite is PD-1/PDL-1, “programmed death -1,” sounds promising!) Interesting information, the cancer cells are only alive on the surface of the tumor, the inside of the tumor is dead cells. Could see this on the PET CT scan, kind of eerie.
Got in to see the surgeon on Mon afternoon too. Liver tumor is on the right lobe but in a busy area, may be difficult for surgery. Two tumors (or more) on small intestine. Bret will have surgery to remove these parts of intestine on Tues Feb 17 at Rex and be in the hospital a few days. Will get the tumor sample for genetic testing, and surgeon may be able to do hepatic biopsy that day. May decide to try drugs to shrink the liver tumor before any more surgery. We were just exhausted by late Monday, so much stress in anticipating news, hearing the news, and thinking about next steps.
No defined plan yet. Likely be multiple weeks for recovery from abdominal surgery, perhaps 6 weeks. Need to get him eating well again after intestinal surgery. Once his team has the cell genetics, that will help them decide on a path. So, will likely be multiple weeks before any type of treatment begins. While Bret is in the hospital, Karen will likely go ahead and work those days, and when he comes home she will stay home several days. Depending on how he’s doing, one thing that might be helpful a day or two next week is someone who could come and stay at home with him during the day. Karen is able to work from home but will likely want to make it into the office some days.
So, we are up and down but maintaining. And waiting. Apologize for sending out an email. We are pretty exhausted with talking about it and thinking about it. Thank you all for your emails, notes and cards, phone calls, and daily prayers for healing – you don’t know how much your words lift us up.
Bret, Karen & Andy
"The quality you deserve is not expensive---it's priceless"