Radiation?

I guess it's about time to give you all the latest with the whole cancer dealio!  The last time I blogged about this back in December our next step was looking into radiation.  We spoke with other doctors here in town and the following week we spoke with Dr. Moley, the medullary specialist who is a surgeon, in St. Louis.  As per his usual attitude, he was rather unimpressed with the all of the pathology reports (if he ever seems to sound worried someday, that's when I will really freak) and said he has definitely seen this before with this type of cancer.

He told us he hasn't seen much of a positive outcome with radiation killing this type of cancer - it sometimes stops large tumor growth, but doesn't seem to reduce the amount overall.  Dr. M didn't really think that the research was good enough to indicate that we go through radiation at this time, and thought the best plan would be to take the 'wait and see' approach.  However, he left us with the kind advice that he is a surgeon, and so of course he thinks surgery is usually the best approach with this kind of cancer and he gave us the name of a specialist in Canada.

With a little work, we finally got in contact with Dr. Brierley, a radiation oncologist in Canada, who has headed up a large amount of the research in the world on radiation as treatment for Medullary Carcinoma.  Scott gave him his history and they discussed all the latest scans and lab values and various interventions we have tried.

After much discussion, his opinion is also that radiation would not be the best at this time.  Research has showed that this type of cancer just does not respond well to radiation and really shows no long term effects on your chances of dying and would greatly impact Scott's quality of life over the next few months.  Also, if it doesn't kill off all those little specs that are there sitting in his fat, it will most likely make it impossible to do surgery in that area again if that was ever needed.  He recommended that we follow everything closely and if it ever comes to the point where the growth occurs in an area where we simply cannot do surgery because of the risks, then we revisit the radiation possibility.  But for now, surgery and no growth are our best bets.

SO!  The plan of action for now is to wait patiently and live in harmony with cancer.  Sounds so weird to say when you're supposed to be fighting cancer.
We will be checking lab values again in a few weeks and will continue to closely follow them.  Scott will probably be having CT scans every few months for a while.  We are eating our fruits and vegetables and exercising and drinking lots of water and juicing some and doing all the things we "should" be doing as much
as possible - mainly though we are just living.
We are enjoying the small things and carrying on with life and we are grateful for that.  Our hope and prayer that we have gotten the most of this cancer out of his body that we can and that it will not grow anymore.  That those little bits we know about will decide to make peace and his body will stay stronger than them.  

Thank you all for all your prayers and kind cards and words as we continue this journey.  We are truly blessed to have the friends and family and love and support that we do.