Another week

Well another week has passed. Scott is slowly improving. He is still on 2 oral antibiotics and has infection in his incision as well as continued drainage of infection into the newest drain. The incision is starting to show some improvement so we are hopeful it will be healed soon. They opened the incision over a month ago and I know that it will be a great day when it is finally healed. Scott is going in again tomorrow for another CT scan to check the drain that is draining the abcess/infection. It would be great to have it removed, but we don't want them to take it out too soon and have the infection flare up again. Obviously we are learning patience. Maybe we can learn it quicker so he can feel more like himself again and start gaining weight.

Friday we met with an Oncologist, Dr. Jonathan Whisenant. I was absolutely dreading this meeting after what we went through when he was first diagnosed. The Oncologists were very gloom and doom and I didn't think either of us could take that right now. He did start out by saying that the cancer was incurrable. We probably expected this, but not the thing we wanted to hear. He did go on to say that the cancer has been there for the past 3.5 years. He said that there are two kinds of this cancer and one is very aggressive (you can almost watch it grow) and one that is much slower growing. He believes this is the kind of cholangiocarcinoma (not sure of the spelling) that Scott has. He said the cancer was not the most important thing to treat right now. He said Scott was very, very, very complicated. He said we needed to get the infections healed and the liver monitered right now. He ordered labs so we will know whats going on with his liver and how it is doing since we got home. (Today I think his eyes are a little less yellow than they have been the last few weeks) He scheduled Scott to come in this Friday and meet with one of the doctors who handles a broader range of care than just the cancer. He also scheduled a full CT scan in October (after the dust settles) to look for any tumors as none have ever shown on any CT or MRI or PET scan since the original surgery in January 2005. Periodically they will do CT scans and if tumors begin to show up, there is a mix of 2 chemotherapy drugs that have been successful in 50% of the cases in shrinking the tumors. Additionally Dr. Whisnant prescribed a drug that may help increase his appetite. Scott is very anxious to have his appetite return and stop the weight loss slide so we are very hopeful now that he has this drug he will be able to eat and appreciate food again.

For me this was the most hopeful news I have heard in the past 6 weeks. Dr. Whisenant also stated that the decision to go to Indiana was the best decision we could have made. He said that surgery was the only way to find these tumors as Scott had had every other test possible and they had gone undetected. He indicated that if Scott had a liver transplant that in 2-3 months he would have been in real trouble. We both know the Lord directed us to go to Indiana. I have told several friends that there was no other reason for us to go to Indiana especially once he was approved for a transplant here in Salt Lake. We had hoped and prayed for a transplant for at least 2 years and then the Lord made it very clear that Indiana was the correct choice. We have been so blessed and we know that our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ love us. We are so grateful to all those who have loved, supported, fed, prayed and fasted and assisted us in any way. We feel your love and are so blessed to have each and every one of you in our lives. Thank you for being there for us! We love you so very much!
Love, Scott and Susan and family